Xander the Vampire Slayer Book One
by CaspR383
Summary: Note to self, cough! remember to stand up-wind when staking a vampire."
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note; PLEASE READ!

This is my own take on the ever popular but still yet to be done decently "Xander as the Slayer" story. I've read just about everyone one of these there is and much to my disappointment not a single author has managed to come up with a version that works and still does justice to the characters and source material created by Joss Whedon. So I thought that I would give it a try.

Now I am starting at what would be the beginning of the series but I'm not simply swapping out Xander for Buffy and vice versa. That isn't interesting at all and to be honest it doesn't really work. Xander isn't Buffy and Buffy isn't Xander. By turning one into the other you lose what makes each of those characters special.

No, what I wanted to do was see what would happen if one stayed true to the characters and their histories but just changed their positions in life.

i.e. Guys are Slayers in this world. Xander is the chosen one and Buffy is normal.

However Xander still grew up in Sunnydale and Buffy is still the new student from L.A. There is a little more to it than that but this AN is getting a little long so I'm going to start wrapping it up with a few things you all need to know.

Ships;

Like Joss did in the first season I'm not going to commit any of the characters to a specific pairing in this first book. Don't worry though. I will still have plenty of flirtation and angst between the characters and everyone will certainly have someone they want to pursue romantically.

Warnings;

Number One. There is one character (two if you want to get technical) that has had a gender-bending makeover in this story. I tried to think of a way to avoid it but I'm not a slash author and I would lose some good plot points from cannon that I thought were worth keeping if I kept them their original gender. Sorry if this bothers anyone.

Number Two. There will be some character death. Which basically means that not everyone from the show is going to make it. However at the same time I will be bringing in characters that were either killed or dropped to the wayside in cannon and making them more prominent. I wanted this to be somewhat original and I had to look at this from a perspective of how would events play out differently with Xander as the Slayer.

Number Three. This isn't so much a warning as it is something I wanted everyone to know straight out the gate so that I wouldn't have to hear about it later. This first chapter that you are about to read does not deviate too much from cannon. That was mostly because I couldn't come up with a better way to set this up than what already existed. I have added scenes and changed the circumstances of others but this is still very similar to the events of the first episode. In the next installment you will start to see some big changes. I have even planned a couple of original adventures not based on events from the series for future installments.

Sorry for being so long winded and I hope everyone enjoys. Lets get on with the show.

Disclaimer; It's Joss' world I'm just rearranging it a little. So please don't sue me. You wouldn't get much because I don't have any money anyway.

Xander the Vampire Slayer

Book One

Chapter one

Welcome to the Hellmouth

In every generation there is a Chosen One. He alone will stand against the Vampires, Demons and the forces of darkness. He is the Slayer.

XXX

"Thanks for walking me home." the gorgeous brunette teen said to her date as they strolled through Sunnydale's Restford Park.

"Not a problem milady," the brown-eyed young man replied with a goofy grin "Twas the chivalrous thing to do." He finished with an exaggerated bow. For her part the girl just giggled at her date's antics.

"Well thank you anyway, it's very sweet." She said stopping to turn to him. All the while noticing they were very much alone on one of the parks more secluded paths. The stars were bright and the moon was shining. All together it made for quite the romantic setting. Something her date seemed to notice as well.

"I think this is the part where I say something incredibly suave then kiss you like you've never been kissed before." The young man said with a smirk.

"Yeah, I think so." The girl nodded in agreement.

"That's too bad, 'cause I can't think of a single suave thing to say. Man, I hate being put on the spot."

"Well, I'm willing to skip straight to the kiss."

"I was hoping you would be." The boy said as he and his date leaned in lips almost touching. However, before they could make contact the girl turned away suddenly startled.

"Did you just hear something?" She asked looking around the dark wooded area with wide eyes.

"No, I didn't hear anything." He replied shaking his head.

"I could've sworn I heard something moving over there." She said pointing to some bushes. Her date narrowed his eyes and scanned the spot she indicated.

"It was probably just a squirrel or something."

"Are you sure?" She asked turning away to look in that direction again.

"Yeah, I'm sure we're the only ones out here." He stated.

"Okay," she said as she turned back to face her date. In an instant her beautiful face distorted and morphed into a horrifying countenance. Her brow became large and bumpy, her eyes seemed to take on an unearthly yellow glow and her teeth transformed into a set of nasty fangs. Expecting an easy meal she was quite surprised when her date's fist connected solidly with her jaw.

The vampire staggered back and shook off the shock from the oddly powerful blow she had just received. However she was not daunted by it. "Not quite the kind of action I was hoping for, but I don't mind playing rough." She said grinning devilishly.

"Sorry to disappoint but I'm just not that attracted to you anymore." The young man said while casually stepping into a fighting stance.

"What's the matter baby?" The vamp asked still smiling "You thought I was pretty a few minutes ago?"

A cocky smile formed on the boy's lips and he just couldn't resist quoting his favorite movie hero "Honey, you got real ugly." Then he was on her almost faster than the eye could see. Her yellow eyes grew wide in astonishment as she looked down at the stake protruding from her chest.

"H-how…"

"Good night sweetheart. I'd call you later but…" as if on cue she exploded into dust before him.

Xander Harris, latest in a long line of young men to be called the Slayer coughed slightly as he brushed the dusty remains of his date off his clothes. "Note to self, (cough!) remember to stand up-wind when staking a vampire."

XXX

Buffy Summers awoke with a start, her breathing heavy and her heart pounding. The sixteen-year-old blond sophomore took a deep calming breath as she got a hold of her nerves. She was safe in her bed in her new hometown of Sunnydale California.

"I am getting really tired of these nightmares." She said to herself with a groan. She'd been having them ever since Hemery. Ever since she had found out the truth about the world. It was funny how learning that monsters were real could totally screw with your sleeping habits.

It had all started a few months ago. Back when Buffy Anne Summers had been just another popular cheerleader living in LA and lording her status over the rest of Hemery High. She had everything a shallow valley girl could want. She was dating the starting quarterback, had all the trendy clothes her Daddy's money could buy and the adoration of all her so-called friends. Then she met Oliver Pike, the Vampire Slayer. Nothing was the same after that.

Pike had been the consummate loner of Hemery High. He wasn't a complete loser but he also wasn't high enough up the social food chain for Buffy to bother with. He might as well not have existed at all considering how little she cared. What was one social outcast when compared to picking out the perfect dress for homecoming or landing the starting quarterback for as your date?

Boy, had she been a stupid, shallow and selfish little girl back then. Still, Pike had seen something in her that he thought was worth saving. He had opened her eyes to the truth of the world and forced her to look beyond herself. It was scary and sometimes she wanted to hate him for shattering her illusions. However, at the same time wouldn't want to go back to the way things were. Pike had sacrificed himself to save her and everyone else at Hemery from the vampire Lothos and she wouldn't cheapen that by wishing it had never happened. Even if it would make her life less complicated.

"Buffy?" Hearing her mother's voice snapped her out of her somber musings.

"I'm up Mom." Buffy replied looking around her room, still filled with unpacked boxes.

"Good, wouldn't want you to be late for your first day at a new school." Joyce Summers answered through the closed door.

"No," Buffy said halfheartedly "wouldn't want that."

XXX

Sunnydale High was on the outside at least, fairly typical of most American high schools. There were students milling about in their various cliques. The faculty was arriving for another day of shaping young minds. The building's architecture was typical for southern California with its terracotta-tiled roof to its adobe-like walls. It seemed like quite the inviting place to learn. Buffy could tell already that this was going to be a disaster.

'_At least there aren't any vampires.'_ she thought silently to herself.

"Okay." Joyce Summers said as she parked the black Jeep Cherokee in front of the building's main entrance. Buffy sighed heavily resigning herself to her fate as she exited her mother's car. "Have a good day." Joyce said encouragingly. "I know your going to make a lot of friends. Just think positively." Buffy managed a weak smile for her mother as she shut the car's door.

"Okay, Mom." She said before turning to go inside.

"Oh, and Buffy." The elder Summers women said regaining her daughter's attention. "Try not to get kicked out." She added pleadingly.

"I promise." Buffy said with as much sincerity as she could muster. Joyce smiled in relief. Then with a wave she drove off leaving Buffy to her doom.

'_Okay. Time to get this over with.'_ Buffy thought resolutely and began making her way to the school's entrance.

XXX

The morning sun was shining brightly as Xander Harris made his daily commute to school via skateboard with a contented smirk on his face. Things had been going well for Xander lately or at least better than usual. As of two weeks ago he was out of his drunken parent's house and was now staying with his very cool uncle Rory. And for the first time ever (thanks mostly to a little redhead that he knew) Xander was passing more of his classes than he was failing. Oh yeah, he was also a superhero to boot.

Even though Xan had a few mixed feelings about it he still considered becoming the Vampire Slayer to be one of the better things to happen to him recently. That's right folks. He, Xander Harris, was the Chosen One. The one boy in all the world with the power to hunt the vampires and stop the spread of their evil. At least that was the company line his Watcher had given him when they had first met a couple of months ago. Anyway, Xan just thought it was cool to have super powers. He also liked the confidence boost that came with them. The verbal barbs of the popular kids hardly even phased him anymore.

Of course being the Slayer wasn't all laughs and giggles. There were some definite downsides to the gig as well. There was the short life expectancy that came with the job of course but oddly enough that wasn't one that really bothered Xander. Like most teenagers he didn't really take time to consider his own mortality. At least not much anyway.

No, the two cons of the job that really got to him were first, having to maintain a secret identity and second, the extremely vivid nightmares. He would be quite happy to live without either one.

He wasn't sure which part of having a secret ID bothered him more. Having to "Clark Kent" his way through high school or not being able to tell his two bestest buds about what was really going on with him. There had already been five times in the last two weeks where he had had to blow off his friends due to Slayer related business. Most of those times being training sessions with his watcher. He was really getting tired of having to come up with lame excuses for why he was always running late or just didn't show up at all. He hated lying to the both of them. Xander sighed and shook his head as he effortlessly ollied over a curb and onto the sidewalk.

Maybe it was for the best. Anyway, if he did tell them they would probably just think he was nuts. He would just have to make more time for them.

As for the nightmares, they really sucked. Vampires, pools of blood and various other demons had been just a few of the disjointed and disturbing images bouncing around his subconscious lately. He had been told that Slayer dreams were supposed to be prophetic but Xan wasn't so sure about that.

'_This was Sunnydale after all_.' He mentally scoffed as the school came into view. '_No way could things get as bad as they are in my nightmares._'

For kicks he decided to perform a few complicated tricks on his board, finishing up with a nose grind across the back of a bench. The Slayer upgrade certainly had done wonders for his strength, agility and coordination. He could actually ride this thing like a pro now.

'_Tony Hawk, eat your heart out.'_

As he got closer to the building Xander started weaving through the crowd on his skateboard. Sometimes passing within mere inches of his fellow students. If and when he had the opportunity to buzz by Cordelia Chase and her herd of mindless sheep he made sure to cut it extra close. He was still the treasurer of the "We hate Cordelia" club after all.

The dark haired Slayer was about to come to a stop and dismount his board when a blond goddess passed before him. All thought of anything else vanished as his eyes tracked her forward progress. She was small, 5'2 at the most with deep hazel eyes and magnificently full-lips. She had to be new because he had never laid eyes on her before but at the same time she seemed incredibly familiar to the young Slayer. It felt almost like deja vu.

WHAM!

Xander suddenly found himself on the ground in a rather undignified heap after colliding with a stair railing. Most everyone in the vicinity laughed at the young Slayer's rather clumsy display but the new girl didn't even turn around. On the bright side, Xan thought as he lay there a moment longer, if he had still been a normal person that probably would have hurt a lot more. As it turned out the only thing that had been injured by the railing was his pride and if he was honest with himself he had never had much of that to begin with.

"Well, that was slick." A slightly mocking voice said from above. Xander turned his head to see the dark haired and lanky form of Jesse McNally, one of his two best friends. Jesse was slightly taller than Xander. He had a narrow face with a strong jaw and dark brown eyes. Standing above his prone friend, Jesse offered a hand up. Xander took the hand that was given and Jes hauled him to his feet. The Slayer then retrieved his skateboard.

"So you liked that new trick huh?" Xander asked trying to sound like he had fully intended to get up close and personal with the handrail. "I hear the pros do it all the time." Jesse just quirked an eyebrow at that remark.

"Trick huh?" He said with a smirk. "That's funny, because from where I was standing it looked like you were paying way more attention to the new girl's butt and not enough to where you were going." Then he shrugged. "Not that I blame you, Willow might but I wouldn't."

"What would I blame him for?" The girl known as Willow Rosenberg asked walking up to her two bestest buds. Willow was almost a foot shorter than Xander with red hair, sea green eyes and slightly freckled face.

"Xander was just scoping out the new girl's awesome…" A not so gentle elbow to the ribs from Xander made Jesse rethink what he was about to say next. "Um, personality." Willow just rolled her eyes at her boys' antics.

"Anyway," Xander interjected "have either of you seen her around before?" Both shook their heads with matching looks of confusion to their friend's odd question.

"No, why do you ask?" Willow queried.

"I just feel like I should know her from somewhere." Xander answered uncertainly as the three of them started toward the main entrance.

"Well, if her family just moved in you might have seen her around town somewhere before she got enrolled and just don't remember." Jesse ventured.

"No." Xander said shaking his head. "A girl that seriously hot I would have remembered." He finished as they walked into the building never noticing the shadow of jealousy that passed over Willow's face.

XXX

Things were off to a great start today Buffy thought sarcastically as she exited the Principals office and entered the busy hallway. Her meeting with Principal (just call me Bob) Flutie had begun well with him giving a speech about how everyone got a fresh start here at Sunnydale High and that they didn't care about a student's past history. Then he looked at her records. Apparently burning down a gym was the one thing that they weren't quite willing to forgive and forget. Never mind that it was actually Pike's idea and that they had had a very good reason for doing it.

Of course Buffy couldn't tell anyone what that reason was. If you start spouting off about vampires and vampire slayers it won't be long before you find yourself in a straitjacket and a padded room.

Buffy sighed heavily. At least they were going to let her stay. Although Flutie pretty much said without actually saying it out loud that they would be keeping an eye on her.

"As long nothing else goes wrong today I'll be okay." She said quietly to herself then she stepped into the crowd of teenagers heading to class and immediately collided with couple of seniors. Which of course caused her to spill her bag's entire contents all over the hallway's floor. Then the jerks didn't even stop to help her or at least say they were sorry.

"I should really learn not to jinx myself." Buffy grumbled as she bent down to pick up her stuff. Suddenly someone dropped down in front of her and began to help gather her things. Well at least someone in this school has some manners. The LA native looked up to face her white knight. He was marginally handsome and cute in the goofy kind of way. He had longish brunette hair, warm brown eyes and very charming lopsided grin. The only fault she could find with his appearance was his questionable fashion sense. That had to be the most horrendous Hawaiian shirt Buffy had ever seen.

"Thanks." Buffy said as he handed her the last of her things.

"Having you was no problem." He answered. To which Buffy gave him a funny look. It took a full two seconds for him to realize the Freudian slip what he had just made and his look of mortification was priceless. "I meant uh, helping you was no problem." He corrected with a blush.

"That's what I figured you meant." The Summers girl said with a chuckle and extended her hand in introduction. "I'm Buffy Summers by the way. I'm new."

"Xander Harris," the boy answered taking her hand "uh, is me."

"Well it was nice meeting you Xander, but I have to get to my first class."

"Yeah, it was nice meeting you too." He replied. "And hey, maybe I'll see you around sometime, maybe at school… seeing as how we both uh, go there." Xander rambled, the look on his face clearly saying he wanted to kick himself.

"Yeah, well…bye." Buffy said with a slightly puzzled expression as she started to walk away. _'Strange guy,'_ Buffy thought _'nice but strange.'_

For his part the Slayer just stood there a moment longer feeling very stupid. "We both go to school. Yeah, that wasn't pathetic at all." He berated himself as he watched her leave and disappear around a corner. What the hell was it about this girl that was throwing him off? Further more he still couldn't shake the feeling that he had met her somewhere before and that wasn't making things any easier.

"Get a grip Harris." He said sternly to himself as he started toward the library. It was time to report to his Watcher.

XXX

"Hey Giles, you in here?" Xander called out as he walked into the seemingly deserted library hearing his voice echo in the large open room. The Sunnydale High library was large and octagonal shaped with the back half of the room being elevated about three feet higher than the front. In the center of the room there was a large reading table with lamps and chairs spaced evenly all around it. The elevated tier in the back was where the stacks were located containing most of the room's books. All in all it looked like how one would expect a library to look. But there was something about the place that always made Xan's spidey-sense (AKA Slaydar) tingle.

It wasn't a full-blown "a vampire is about to attack me" feeling but just a general sense of doom. The Slayer had decided awhile ago that it was just the quietness of the place and all the books (shudder) that gave him the wiggins.

As he walked further into the room he noticed a newspaper sitting on the checkout counter. Normally that wouldn't have been enough to get his attention but someone (most likely Giles) had circled one of the articles in red ink. The headline read "Local boys still missing" and beneath was a picture of three young men about Xander's age.

'_No one I know.'_ The Slayer mentally shrugged. Just then a hand tapped him on the shoulder.

"Gah!" Xander yelped and almost backhanded the person that had snuck up behind him. Fortunately he managed to reign himself in before he lashed out. Turning around he came face to face with the very person he'd been looking for, his Watcher Rupert Giles.

"Jeez Giles, don't sneak up on me like that. I thought you were supposed to be a librarian not a ninja."

"If you had been paying attention to all your senses Xander, I would not have been able to catch you unawares." The British man said in his lecture voice, which was something that for inexplicable reasons caused Xander to fall asleep most days.

Rupert Giles was in his early forties with dark brown hair that was starting to gray at the temples. He was usually attired in a three-piece tweed suit with a pair of wire framed glasses perched on his nose. It seemed fitting then that whenever Xander saw him the word "bookish" always came to mind.

"Can we skip the speech about how I should be on guard at all times. I would like to make it out of here sometime this century."

"What exactly does that mean?" Giles asked sounding as if he was about to take offence.

"Not much really," Xander began "just that once you get going you have a tendency to keep on going and to be honest Giles, I don't listen to even half of what you say once you've gotten your lecture on." Xander said with a shrug. "I'm just trying to save us both some time while also keeping you from going to the trouble of telling me something that I'm probably not going to remember later. Everybody wins."

At that the older man did take offence but before he could voice his anger Xander interjected "So, do you wanna hear how things went last night or not?" Knowing that Xander was referring to last night's patrol he decided to table the discussion about the boy's earlier insubordination for later.

"Yes Xander, how did it go?" the Watcher asked of his Slayer with an expectant look.

"Pretty well actually. I picked up a nice girl at the Bronze. We had some good conversation and then…" The Slayer paused for dramatic effect "…she tried to eat me. I don't know about you but I found that to be a huge turn off."

"Well I should hope so." was Giles' incredulous reply. "Anything else to report?"

"Well…" Xander began with an audible sigh as took a seat at the library table "I met this other girl today and I think she was into me at first but then I made a really stupid observation about how we both go to school." The dark haired boy shook his head sadly. "I'm pretty sure that's when she decided that I'm a doofus."

"Um, Xander?" Giles said looking very confused.

"Yeah G-Man?"

"What in the Bloody Hell are you talking about?!" The older man shouted in exasperation. Xander for his part just looked at his watcher like he was the stupidest person on the planet.

"The new girl or more accurately "hottie" on campus, duh." Xander answered his tone suggesting that it was the most obvious thing in the world. However the roguish grin on the boys face made it clear to Giles that Xander was irking him intentionally. That seemed to have become the pattern for their relationship. "C'mon Giles, keep up."

A groan of complete frustration escaped from the older man. "Well Xander, I'm sure this new student is fascinating but when I asked if you had anything else to report, I meant anything pertinent to the supernatural." Giles said trying very hard not to grind his teeth with every syllable.

"Why didn't you just say so then?" Xander asked trying to sound put out but coming off as amused. "Jeez, for a second there I thought you might actually be interested in hearing how my day to day was going but I should have known better. If it doesn't involve blood sucking fiends, Giles doesn't wanna hear about it."

'_And the boy says I like to talk.'_ Giles thought mildly irritated.

"Anyway, to answer your question not much else happened."

"Were you seen by any other vampires?" Giles asked his charge.

"Nope. I managed to fly under the rest of the undead's radar."

"Good." Giles had firmly told Xander to maintain a low profile until they knew how big a threat they were up against. Once vampires learned of a Slayer's presence said Slayer tended to become the hunted rather than the hunter. Best to avoid a situation like that if they could as Xander still lacked the experience to handle it.

"Well, if we're done I've got to get to class." Xander said getting up from his seat and heading for the exit. When he reached the door though he turned back to face his Watcher. Giles was surprised to see a very serious expression on his face.

"Was there something else Xander?" he asked slightly concerned at his charge's sudden change of mood. For a moment it looked as if Xander was having an internal debate before he finally spoke.

"Giles," he started uncertainly "have you ever met someone for the first time but you could swear that you had met them before only you couldn't remember where or when?" Giles pondered what his Slayer had just said but couldn't think of any similar experiences.

"No Xander, I can't say that I have. Why do you ask?"

"No reason." Xander shook his head as he opened the door to leave. "It's all probably just in my head. Anyway I'll see you tonight G-man."

"Don't call me that." Giles shouted after him but the dark haired youth was already gone. Not that it would have done much good if Xander had heard. This Slayer seemed to take great pleasure in driving his Watcher to distraction. In any event Giles had research to do. If he was reading the signs and portents correctly there might be more to this town's problems than a simple vampire infestation.

XXX

Buffy studiously jotted down notes as the teacher wrote the words "The Black Death" on the chalkboard and underlined them. European history didn't really float the former cheerleader's boat but Buffy also wasn't going to give Flutie a reason to show her the door. Hence the studious note jotting.

"It's estimated that about twenty five Million people died in that one four-year span." The teacher said stepping away from the board and addressed the students. "But the fun part of the Black Plague is that it originated in Europe how?" The teacher waited a beat hoping someone would answer of his or her own volition. Buffy sure didn't see any volunteers though. "As an early form of germ warfare." The educator continued. "Now if you'll look at the map on page sixty-three, you can trace the spread of the disease…"

Buffy felt a little panic when she realized that she didn't have a textbook.

"Here." Luckily the brunette girl next to her offered to share.

"Thanks." Buffy said with a grateful smile.

"Sure." She answered with a smile of her own.

"…and this popular plague lead to what social changes?" Again the teacher waited a beat. Seeing no takers this time as well she pointed to a young man in the back and called out "Steve?" Luckily for Steve the bell chose that moment to ring saving him from answering.

"Hi I'm Cordelia." The beautiful girl said extending her hand to Buffy.

"I'm Buffy." She said taking the other girl's hand and giving it a quick shake.

"If you're looking for a textbook of your very own, there's probably a few in the library." Cordelia offered.

"Thanks for the advice." Buffy said feeling grateful. "I'll have to stop there after lunch."

"Not a problem. So what's your next class?" Cordy asked. Buffy pulled out her schedule.

"Um, geometry with Mrs. Lasseter," Then Buffy felt kind of silly. "Do you know where that is?"

"Oh yeah. It's on the way to my next class. I'll show you." Cordy said as she looped her arm through Buffy's. "Come on." She said taking her out of the classroom and into the halls. "So you're from Hemery, right? In LA?" She queried.

"Yeah."

"Oh, I would kill to live in LA that close to that many shoes." Both girls chuckled at that finding some common ground. Buffy was still a girl after all even if she had come to learn that there was more to life than shopping.

"Well, You'll be okay here. If you hang with me and mine, you'll be accepted in no time." Cordy said as they walked through the corridors to Buffy's next class. "Of course, we will have to test your coolness factor. You're from LA so you can skip the written, but let's see." Then she struck a thoughtful pose. "Vamp nail polish?"

"Um, over." Buffy said with only a moments hesitation.

"So over." Cordelia agreed. "James Spader?"

"He needs to call me." Buffy gushed.

"Frappaccinos?"

"Trendy, but tasty."

"And finally, John Tesh?"

"The Devil." Buffy answered with certainty.

"Well, that last one was pretty much a gimme, but you passed."

Buffy sighed in relief. "Oh, good." Buffy said as they came to a water fountain where a mousy looking girl was taking a sip. Upon seeing the girl at the fountain Cordelia's manner changed from friendly and welcoming to cold and predatory. The look on her face was one Buffy was quite familiar with. It was the same look she used to get back at Hemery when she came across someone she thought was beneath her socially. The way she used to be was something that Buffy wasn't very proud of and seeing it in Cordelia made her wonder if they should be friends.

"Willow," Cordy said in a typical mean girl voice. "Nice outfit. Good to know you've seen the softer side of sears." She said snarkily. Buffy gave the girl in question (Willow) a once over. She was pretty as well but not as made up as Cordy or even Buffy herself. Her beauty was a little more natural. The Summers girl also took a look at her attire. Now Buffy like any other good Cosmo girl knew her fashion. It was true that Willow's choice in dress wasn't that great. In fact it looked like the poor girl's mother had picked out her clothes, but that was no reason to be mean to her.

Willow seemed to wilt under Cordelia's gaze. "Uh well, well my Mom picked it out." She said stammering a little and confirming what Buffy suspected.

Cordelia just scoffed. "No wonder you're such a guy magnet. Are you done?" Willow's spirit seemed to crumble right before Buffy's eyes. She hung her head and walked away in defeat. She watched the meek redhead go feeling like a complete jerk for just letting Cordy do that to her.

"If you want to fit in here," Cordy said looking Buffy in the eye "the first rule is know your losers. Once you can identify them all by sight, they're a lot easier to avoid." Buffy just nodded her head dumbly as Cordy took a drink from the fountain. She decided that she definitely didn't like this side of Cordelia. The rich girl then took Buffy by the arm again and continued their journey through the school.

"If you're not too swamped with catching up," the friendly Cordelia Chase was back now "you should come by the Bronze tonight."

"The what?" she asked.

"The Bronze. It's the only club worth going to around here." She said like it should be obvious to anyone with more than two brain cells. "They let anybody in, but it's still the scene. It's in the bad part of town."

"Where's that?" Buffy asked a little concerned.

"About half block from the good part of town. We don't have a whole lot of town here." She answered with a giggle. "But uh, you should show." She said as they stopped in front of the door to Buffy's class.

"Well, I'll try. And thanks for showing me the way."

"Good. So, I'll see you in Gym," Cordelia said as she was leaving to go to her own class "and you can tell me absolutely everything there is to know about you."

"Great." Buffy said not really liking that idea too much. Especially considering all the craziness that had gotten her here in the first place. "Yeah, that sounds like fun." The LA native said very unenthusiastically as she entered the classroom.

XXX

"Have you seen the new girl? She's weird and what kind of name is "Buffy" anyway?" The Cordette named Aphrodsia asked her friend Aura as they entered the girl's locker room.

Aura just laughed "I know, it's like totally the strangest name I've ever heard." Of course if these two girls were a little more self-aware they might have noticed that there own names weren't that normal either. "Anyway," Aura continued as they got to their lockers "have you heard the latest gossip about her?"

"No." Aphrodsia answered almost bouncing up and down. They hadn't had anything juicy to talk about for quite awhile.

"Well, chatter around the caf is that she got kicked out."

"Neg!" Aphrodsia replied looking scandalized.

"Pos, word is that she was involved with some gang-banger and they burned down the gym at her last school and that's why she had to move here with her mom." Aura said smiling at her friend's shocked reaction. "She's like some psycho-pyro and Sunnydale was the only school that would take her."

"Negly!" Aphrodsia practically shouted.

Aura was on a roll now. "Well I heard from Blue and she said…" Aura didn't get chance to finish her latest bit of gossip because as soon as she opened the locker door the body of a girl fell out practically on top of her. Almost immediately she began to scream hysterically and didn't stop for several minutes afterward.

XXX

Classes had let out for lunch and now Buffy found herself on a mission. It was about five minutes into her geometry class with Mrs. Lasseter that Buffy discovered that she was just as behind there as she had been in the other two classes she'd attended that morning. Asking around about whom to talk to about getting caught up one name kept coming up. Willow Rosenberg. The same girl Buffy had watched Cordelia tear down earlier that day. She was still feeling guilty for just letting it happen. Anyway according to her new peers Willow was not the most popular girl at school but she was definitely the smartest. Now all Buffy had to do was find her.

Coming out into the courtyard Buffy immediately spotted the girl in question. She was sitting with a lanky dark haired boy on a bench near one end of the courtyard and both were eating their lunch. Deciding the direct approach was best Buffy strode over to the brainy girl and her friend.

"Uh, Hi. You're Willow right?" She asked already certain of the answer. Even If Buffy hadn't seen her once today already she was pretty sure "Willow" wasn't a common enough name for there to be more than one.

"Why?" The look on Willow's face as she turned to face Buffy seemed to be half alarmed and half questioning. Then her expression softened a little. "I-I mean, yes I'm Willow and this is Jesse." She said indicating the boy next to her. "Did you want us to move?" she asked.

"Why would we move?" Jesse asked looking at Willow incredulously. "Really Will, you need to get over this meek & helpless little girl thing." Buffy felt some sympathy for the girl and agreed with her friend. She really did need to learn to stand up for herself more.

"Why don't we start with "Hi, I'm Buffy," she said with a wave and her most disarming smile "and then lets segue directly to me asking you for a favor." Buffy said taking a seat on the other side of Willow and opposite her friend Jesse then continued. "It doesn't require you to move, but it will involve you hanging out with me for a while."

"Aren't you hanging out with Cordelia?" Jesse asked with a slightly dubious expression.

"I can't do both?" Buffy asked pretty sure of the answer and not really lamenting the loss of Cordelia as a potential friend.

"Not legally." Willow confirmed.

Buffy sighed with a little smirk on her face. "Look, I really can't afford not to get by here. And Cordelia's been really nice…" Buffy winced at the memory of what Cordy had done to Willow by the drinking fountain "to me anyway. But I kind of have this crazy urge not to bomb in all my classes, and I was told that you were the woman to see if I wanted to get back on track."

"You have totally come to the right place." Jesse said putting his left arm around Willow and giving Buffy a thumbs up with his right. "There isn't anyone in this school as smart as this girl right here." Willow for her part just blushed at her friend's praise.

"You're pretty smart too Jesse." Willow said still blushing from the praise then she looked to Buffy. "He is right though, I could totally help you out." She said showing a lot more confidence now that the discussion had turned toward academics. "Seriously, if I could get Xander Harris to pass most of his classes then getting you caught up should be a cinch."

"Xander?" Buffy said surprised but in a good way. "I met him earlier. He was nice, a little goofy but nice."

"He sure is." Willow said with a little smile and a far away look in her eyes. Someone has a crush Buffy thought. She herself had to admit that she too thought he was cute, if not just a little off. Buffy could definitely see why Willow liked him.

"Anyway," Jesse said breaking back into the conversation "speaking of our bestest pal Xander, where is he? He should have been here by now."

"That's a good question. He promised he was going to have lunch with us today." Willow said looking around sounding worried. "Do you think he's flaked on us again?"

"Flaked on you again?" Buffy said questioningly. "Has he been doing that a lot?"

"Yeah, he's been acting kind of funny for the last couple of months." Willow answered with a concerned shrug. "He cancels on us all the time, he's always running late and whenever we ask him about it he gets all… avoidy."

"And he has been spending a lot of time in the library." Jesse added. Buffy was about to ask why that was weird when the lanky youth continued. "Anyone who knows Xander also knows that books are like his kryptonite. It's just strange." Buffy wasn't quite sure what she should say to that.

"Maybe he's just going through something and he doesn't know how to talk to you guys about it." Buffy offered as explanation. However before either Willow or Jesse could say anything else Cordelia Chase appeared.

"Are these rejects bothering you?" Cordelia asked snidely.

Buffy looked around at her new friends. "Uh, no." she said with a little laugh.

"She's not hanging out with us." Willow said shaking her head.

"Hey, Cordelia." Jesse said getting up to greet the popular girl flirtatiously.

"Oh, please." She responded rolling her eyes. "I don't mean to interrupt your downward mobility," She said scathingly to Buffy "but I just wanted to tell you that you won't be meeting Coach Foster, you know, the woman with the chest hair because gym was canceled due to the extreme dead girl in the locker."

"What?" was Buffy's shocked reply. She wasn't sure what had bothered her more. That a dead girl had been found in a locker or that Cordelia had told them about it like she was talking about the weather.

"What are you talking about?" asked Willow eyes wide.

"Some girl was stuffed in Aura's locker." Cordelia informed the trio.

"Dead?" Buffy questioned.

"Totally dead. Way dead." Cordy said resolutely.

"So not just a little dead then?" Buffy asked still not quite believing what she was hearing.

"You know, if you need a shoulder to cry on or just to nibble on…" Jesse said to the brunette trying to sound comforting and failing miserably.

"How did she die?" asked Buffy seriously.

"I don't know. Something about a barbecue fork to the neck." Cordelia was now looking at Buffy like she was demented. "Why?"

"Nothing." Buffy mumbled thinking all of this sounding way too familiar but at the same time desperately hoping it was just a coincidence.

"Hanging out with losers and a morbid fascination with dead people." The popular girl was shaking her head at Buffy. "You almost had me fooled. I thought you had potential but now I see your just another loser." With that Cordelia walked off in a huff of superiority.

"Sorry that we messed that up for you." Willow said quietly. Buffy just looked at her and smiled.

"Don't worry about it Willow. I used to be the Cordelia of Hemery High and its not as great as she wants everyone to think. At least now I know who my friends are." Willow just smiled back. At least until she noticed that Jesse was staring at Cordelia's butt as she walked farther away from them. Then the redhead just rolled her eyes. Buffy also seemed to have noticed where Jesse's attention was focused. Looking at each other and shaking their heads both girls said with exasperation "Boys?"

"What?" Jesse asked innocently. "I think I may be wearing her down." Buffy and Willow giggled at that not liking his chances.

"Anyway," Buffy said her serious expression returning with the memory of the sobering news Cordy had given them "seeing as Gym was canceled I think I'll head over to the library and pick up my text books." Then she turned to Willow. "How 'bout we meet out front after school and then we can work out a time to study."

"Sounds good." Willow affirmed as she too got up to leave dragging Jesse with her. With that the three new friends parted company.

XXX

Thanks to the power of the SHS rumor mill, word about the dead girl had gotten around pretty quickly. Xander himself had been on his way to the courtyard to meet Willow and Jesse for lunch (like he'd promised them he would) when he'd heard about it. Now he found himself having to sneak his way towards the girl's locker room to investigate instead. It looked like he would have to come up with yet another lie to tell his friends. God did he hate having a secret identity.

Looking around carefully he checked to make sure no one was watching as he neared the door. Xander Harris had many fantasies that involved the girl's locker room, but breaking in to scope out a dead body was certainly not one of them. With the super strength that being the Slayer afforded him he easily broke the lock on the door. Then he entered as quietly as possible.

The body was lying on a bench in the middle of the room covered by a tarp. He had to be quick with his examination because the coroners would be arriving soon to take it away. He didn't want to be around when they showed up. Kneeling down next to the corpse Xander hoped and prayed that his gut feeling was wrong about this.

Taking a deep breath Xander pulled the tarp away revealing the body of a girl not much older than himself. On the right side of the victim's neck there were two little puncture wounds right where a major artery was located. The young Slayer's heart sank as he saw the marks and knew what they meant. "I guess you had a bad date last night too."

XXX

"Hey Giles." Xander shouted as he stormed into the library.

"Yes?" Giles said appearing from behind a bookcase. Spotting his mentor Xander walked toward him purposefully.

"We have a little problem." The boy said coming to a stop before his Watcher. "I'm sure you have heard about the dead girl right? The one they found stuffed in a locker."

"Yes."

"Well, I'll give you three guesses what happened to her and the first two don't count." Xander said crossing his arms with a dark look.

"Vampire?" the older man asked.

"Got it in one." The Slayer confirmed. "Of course the official story is that she impaled herself on a barbecue fork."

"That is a rather wild claim."

"What's crazier," Xander added shaking his head in disbelief "is that people are actually buying that story."

"You'll find Xander that people in general have an amazing capacity for self deception. They tend to rationalize that which they do not understand." Giles then sighed deeply and asked his next question "Is she…Will she rise again?"

"Huh?" Xander asked caught off guard by the Watcher's query.

"The girl." Giles affirmed sounding a little annoyed.

"No. She's just dead."

"Are you certain?"

Xander looked a little offended that Giles was questioning him. "I may have only been at this whole slayer gig couple of months now but I can tell the difference between someone who was turned and someone who is just dead."

"How?"

Xander sighed heavily but recited what he knew about vampire siring anyway. "She didn't have any blood on her lips. To make you a vampire, they have to suck your blood and then you have to suck their blood. It's this whole big suckfest. Mostly they're just looking to make a meal out of you."

Giles seemed satisfied with that answer. "In any event, I was afraid something like this might happen."

"What do mean when you say, something like this?"

"Most vampires are not usually so cavalier with their victim's remains." Giles answered intensely. "They are getting bolder. The girl, I'm afraid is just the start. Something is coming."

"What are you babbling about Giles?" Xander asked growing uncomfortable with the lack of a real explanation. Sighing and massaging the bridge of his nose the watcher decided to take a different tack. Going into his office Giles began to search for something while Xander watched.

A moment later the older man asked, "What do you know about your town Xander?"

"Sunnydale is a one Starbucks town Giles." Xander replied flippantly. "There really isn't much to know."

"I've been researching heavily from the moment I suspected there might be more going on than we initially thought. Dig a bit into the history of this place," Giles said still searching through his office "you'll find a steady stream of fairly odd occurrences." Finally finding what he was after Giles emerged with several books. "I believe this whole area is a center of mystical energy, that things gravitate towards it that you might not find elsewhere."

"Like vampires." Xander said seeing where the librarian was going with this.

"Like zombies, werewolves, incubi, succubi." with each word Giles handed Xander a book. "Everything you've ever dreaded was under your bed but told yourself couldn't be by the light of day." Xander was now holding quite a large stack of books in his hands. "They are all real." Giles said intensely.

"G-man, are you gonna test me on all this stuff later?" Xander asked with a little sarcasm.

"Oh, w-well, no." Giles' look of intensity vanished as he was caught off guard by the question.

"Pop quiz?"

"Um, I don't think so."

"Excellent." Xander said handing the books back to Giles. "Then I don't see what any of that other stuff has to do with me. I'm a Vampire Slayer after all, not an Inkyby Slayer."

"It's in-cu-bi," Giles said enunciating the word properly though he half suspected Xander had mispronounced it on purpose, "and as the Slayer your responsibilities extend beyond vampires though they are your primary concern."

"Well my responsibilities just made me blow off my friends, again!" Xander said indignantly. "So I think I'm gonna take the night off and just hang."

That caused Giles to stutter, "Ta-take the night off? Xander, you can't take a night off."

"Why the hell not?" Xander asked sounding every inch the petulant teenager.

"Because you are the Slayer." Giles stated like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "To each generation a Slayer is born." The Watcher began to recite. "One boy in all the world, a chosen one, one born with the strength…"

"…And skill to hunt the vampires," Xander said busting into Giles' recitation "to stop the spread of their evil yadda, yadda, yadda. This is like the millionth time I've heard you make that speech."

"I really don't understand where this attitude is coming from." Giles said shaking his head in confusion. "You have never had a problem with your duty before."

Xander let out a sigh of frustration "Giles, I'm not saying that I don't wanna be the Slayer. Far from it, but I would like to spend time with my friends too and enjoy my life a little." _'However short it may be.'_ Xander added silently to himself. "But if your so worried something is going to happen, hey here's a thought. Why don't you hunt some vamps tonight."

"I'm a Watcher." Giles stated sounding flabbergasted at the very idea. "I haven't the skill."

"Oh come on. Stake through the heart, a little holy water. It's like riding a bike. Once you've done it you'll never forget." Xander said trying to make it sound easy.

Giles wasn't convinced however "A Slayer slays, a Watcher…"

"Watches." Xander supplied sarcastically.

"Yes…No!" Giles verbally stumbled. "He trains him. He-he prepares him."

"Prepares me for what Giles?" Xander asked anger flaring in his voice. "For always having to lie to the people I care about? For constantly having to fight for the lives of others and never getting so much as a thank you?" Xander's voice grew colder with every word. "For probably dying before I've even really had a chance to live?" Xander looked coolly into the watcher's eyes "Go ahead Watcher. Prepare me." Giles was left speechless at the Slayer's tirade. Xander just scoffed shaking his head, then left.

"Damn." Giles muttered to himself and pursued the boy out into the halls.

A short time later Buffy Summers emerged from the stacks clutching her newly acquired textbooks with a look of absolute disbelief upon her face. "I so totally can't believe this is happening to me again?"

XXX

To say Giles was annoyed would be an understatement. The Council had told him at great length that the boy had only been discovered after being called and that his style would probably be unorthodox to say the least but not once did they mention how willful the young man might possibly be.

Giles knew that being assigned an active Slayer was the height of any Watcher's career but now as he chased after the young man he was thinking (and not for the first time mind you) that it was an overrated experience.

"It's getting worse." He shouted as he finally caught up to Xander.

The boy stopped but didn't turn around. "What's getting worse." He asked in an icy tone. Giles directed him to a more secluded part of the hallway.

"The influx of the undead," He whispered earnestly, "the supernatural occurrences. It's been building for years. There's a reason why you were called here, and a reason why it's now!"

The Slayer just rolled his eyes as he began to respond to the Watcher's claims. "I was the next guy in line and I live here Giles. Its all just coincidence." He deadpanned.

'_By all that is holy, this boy is stubborn.'_ The watcher silently ranted. Still, he wasn't going to give up. He too could be quite stubborn.

"Somethings coming." The Watcher began again, "Something…Something is going to happen here. Soon"

"Did they give you lessons on how to be vague in Watcher school?" Xander asked not even trying to hide the sarcasm in his voice.

Giles sighed heavily, "The signs, as far as I can tell, point to a crucial mystical upheaval very soon." The Watcher looked around as the bell for classes rang. "Days. Possibly less."

"Oh, come on." The Slayer said in doubt "This is Sunnydale. I've lived in this town my whole life. How bad an evil can there be here?"

XXX

"The Sleeper will wake." A voice echoed throughout the remains of what had once been a church. Now it was merely another chamber in the extensive cave system that ran beneath the pleasant facade of Sunnydale. Various torches and candles lit the chamber, casting eerie shadows on the walls. There were several disciples around the cavern performing various tasks. Some were carrying torches others seemed to be meditating. One was kneeling before a pool of blood in the center of the defiled church as if praying.

"The Sleeper will wake." It was he who's voice echoed in the cavernous room. "The Sleeper will wake." He said again his voice gaining in volume. "The Sleeper will wake, and the world will bleed." He rose from his kneeling position, his demonic features revealing him to be a vampire.

"Amen!" Luke finished triumphantly.

XXX

School was over for the day and despite the fact that she had had a few hours to process Buffy was still feeling somewhat dazed by all that she had overheard. The biggest problems Buffy thought she'd be facing on her first day of school were things like not making any friends or having last month's hair. Now there were vampires on campus and the nice goofy boy who had helped her pick up her things this morning was the new Vampire Slayer. Not to mention (if she had understood the librarian correctly) something majorly bad and supernatural was going to happen soon.

"What are the odds that I could get involved in weirdness like this twice?" Buffy muttered to herself as she headed to the front of the school only half remembering that she was supposed to meet Willow there. A small voice inside her was telling Buffy that this was all going to end just like Hemery. That she should just run home, grab her mother and get the hell out of dodge. However there was another firmer voice telling Buffy that she should help Xander the same way she had tried to help Pike. That doing so would go a long way to repaying the debt she owed. Pike was only dead now because he had chosen to save her rather than himself. Buffy shuddered at the memories that assaulted her but pushed them from her mind as she came to a decision.

No, she wasn't going to let something like that happen again. Buffy wasn't the pathetic cheerleader anymore who hid when things got dangerous. No, she was going to help Xander and that was all there was to it. Now all she had to do was find him and tell him that she was in his corner for whatever. Then hope he didn't freak out too much when it became clear that the new girl was fully aware of his biggest secret.

Now that she had a plan all Buffy had to do was find Xander to get the ball rolling. The only problem was she didn't have a clue where to start looking for the new Slayer.

"Hi Buffy." A cheerful voice called from her left. Turning to find the source Buffy saw a smiling Willow waving to her. _'Problem solved.'_ Buffy thought as she walked over to one of the best friends of Xander Harris. If anyone knew where to start looking it would be the genius girl before her.

"Oh, hi Willow." Buffy waved back.

"Do you still want to set up a study session?" Willow asked still eager to help.

"Actually, I was wondering if you had seen Xander? I need to talk to him." A minor look of jealousy flashed across the bookworm's face but disappeared again just as swiftly as it had come. Willow being the rational girl she was quickly realized that Buffy could have a lot of reasons for wanting to see Xander that had nothing to do with romantic interest.

"Um, I saw him a little while ago." Willow offered. "He said he wanted to meet me and Jesse at the Bronze tonight to hang out and make up for flaking on us at lunch today. He even pinky promised that he wouldn't blow us off this time."

"The Bronze huh?" Buffy said thinking that sounded perfect. Cordelia did say that she should show and hey, it could be fun. That and she just had a brilliant idea that would totally benefit Willow. "Willow, would you mind if I tagged along with you tonight?"

"Um, sure." The brainy girl said with a smile. Then she asked "Where's your house and what time should I come by?"

"It's at 1630 Revello Drive but I was thinking that you should come with me now."

Willow looked confused. "What do you mean?"

"Well," Buffy said with a smile "If I'm going to do a makeover on you its probably gonna take some time. I'm not suggesting anything drastic. Just a little makeup, maybe do something with your hair and a cute outfit from my wardrobe to get the boys' attention. Yeah, that should do it."

"Uh, I don't know." Willow said uncertainly.

"C'mon Will, it'll be fun." Buffy urged using her most persuasive smile. "Just a little girl bonding between you and me. Considering that your two best friends are boys I'm sure you could use some."

That seemed to do the trick. "Lead on." Willow said strongly even though she still wasn't sure this was a good idea.

XXX

Xander looked around the bedroom that he would be calling his own for the foreseeable future. There wasn't much in it besides a couple moving boxes, his bed and his dresser. After all he had only moved in a couple of weeks ago. Still, it felt more like home than his parent's house ever had. Even with everything that had happened recently Xander was still glad to be here with his uncle Rory.

It was about the same time that the Slayer weirdness started that social services had finally noticed that the Harris' were neglectful drunks. Even at the best of times they had never been the most loving and supportive parents. So Xander hadn't been too surprised that when social services applied some pressure they had willingly given up their guardianship of him to his uncle. The young Slayer had a sneaking suspicion that the Watchers had something to do with his change in fortune. Not that he minded.

He couldn't thank God enough that it had been Rory who had decided to take him. Out of all the family he had Rory was the only one Xander could say he actually cared for. Xan was pretty sure the feeling was mutual.

Sighing heavily Xander pushed the reflective thoughts of the recent past away and focused on the present. He had pulled a few clothing choices from his closet earlier (most of which had a bright Hawaiian print shirt as the anchor) and was now trying to figure out which he should go with for his night out with his bestest buds. Just then he heard a knock on his door. "Yeah?" He asked.

"Hi bud." Rory greeted coming into the room.

"Hey." Xander replied.

"Are you going out tonight?" Rory asked noticing the clothes on Xander's bed.

"Yeah, I'm going to the Bronze. You know, the club in town."

"Will there be girls at this club?"

"No Rory, it's a monk club." Xander joked.

Rory chuckled at that. "Well, just be careful. Don't do anything I wouldn't do." The older man said sagely.

"I will…or won't." Xander floundered. "Whichever is the right answer that's what I'll do." Rory chuckled again at his nephew's interesting if somewhat confusing form of speech.

"You know, I think things are gonna work out just fine for us." The older man said still smiling. "We'll find a balance you and me and I'm gonna get the Garage up and running before too long." For as long as Xander could remember his uncle Rory had talked about opening his own auto-repair shop and now he was doing just that. "Oh, I may have found a parts supplier today."

"That's great, Rory." Xander said feeling genuinely happy for his uncle.

"And I'm going to do my best to provide a supportive environment for you, which is just what you need." Rory assured though Xander wasn't sure whom he was really trying to assure more, Xander or himself.

The Slayer gave his uncle a pointed look. He wasn't five years old after all. "Well, truth be told…" Xander started.

"Not _too_ supportive." Rory interrupted. "I know. You're sixteen. You need to learn to stand on your own." Rory said with a smile. "You're gonna have to bear with me here, Xander. This parenting stuff is still pretty new to me."

Rory took a deep breath and his expression turned serious. "It's hard, your life changing and all. It's been tough for me too." He said placing a hand on Xander's shoulder. "But we'll make it work."

"I know." Xan replied.

"You're a good kid, Xander. I've always known that." Rory Harris said ruffling his nephew's hair. "I'm just sorry that your parents couldn't see it too. But that's all over and done with now."

"It is." Xander stated resolutely.

"Well have fun tonight and don't stay out too late." He told his nephew as he left the room.

XXX

Ten minutes later Xander left the house having finally decided on an outfit for the evening. In the end he had gone with a more serious look consisting of a dark blue button down shirt over a black T-shirt with a pair of blue jeans and his black leather work boots. Now he just needed to get to the Bronze. Which was only a brisk fifteen-minute walk from his and Rory's place.

Just before the end of school he had caught up with Willow and Jesse respectively and told them he would meet up with them at the Bronze for a little quality friend time. Giles was still pissed at him for taking the night off but Willow had made him pinky swear that he would be there and a pinky swear was sacred. Giles would just have to deal.

It was about five minutes into his trip however that his spidey-sense started doing the wacky. He couldn't see anybody but Xan knew he was being followed. Xander picked up the pace thinking maybe he could lose his pursuer but they stayed right with him, but just out of sight the whole time.

'_Screw this.'_ Xander thought. It was time to be proactive. He quickly hurried around a corner into an alley. Looking up Xander noticed a metal bar running the width of the alley about ten or eleven feet up. Moving quickly Xander scaled the alley wall, grabbed the bar and swung himself into a perfect handstand atop it. Looking down he had the perfect view of the alley entrance.

Seconds later he noticed a figure cautiously enter the alleyway. He couldn't see much in the way of details about the person. Shadow obscured most of their features but he could see it was a woman. When she was directly underneath him Xander let gravity take back over and swung forward. His feet connected with her back just below her neck, the force of the blow flipping her forward and onto her back. Xander landed a second later instinctively slipping into a fighting stance while placing a foot on her chest to keep her pinned.

Now that he could see her better Xander examined his pursuers appearance. She looked to be only a couple years older than him and was stunningly beautiful. Her slightly wavy ebony locks framed her pale delicate features and dark eyes perfectly. She was wearing a black leather jacket over a low-cut blood red silk blouse that displayed her assets quite nicely. She also had on a pair of black slacks that hugged her in all the right places.

The girl chuckled and smiled up at him alluringly "Is there a problem pal?"

"Maybe? Depends on why you're following me." Xander said icily while trying very hard to keep his teenage brain from being distracted by her feminine whiles.

"I know what you're thinking," she said still smiling seductively "but don't worry. I don't bite." Then her expression became almost pensive. "Unless you're into that sort of thing." She added with an enticing smirk.

Xander backed off and let her get to her feet but remained on guard. Whoever she was, she obviously knew that he was the Slayer.

"The truth is I thought you would be scarier, or at least have bigger muscles and all that." She said giving him a once over. "Oh," She said painfully reaching to rub the back of her neck "you're pretty spry though."

Under any other circumstances Xander would be more than happy to discuss his personal dimensions with this girl but right now he wanted answers. "What do you want?" he asked directly.

"The same thing you do." She answered vaguely.

Xander sighed in mild irritation. He had gotten enough of the cryptic from Giles today without this chick adding to it. "Okay then. What do I want?" he asked trying to sound annoyed.

She took a step forward. "To kill 'em. To kill 'em all."

'_Wonderful,'_ Xander thought _'five bucks says she knows Giles and he put her up to this to get back at me.'_

"I'm sorry, that is incorrect." Xander said in his best game show host voice "but you do get all expense paid trip to the Bahamas and a years supply of turtle wax. What I want is nice quiet night out with my friends and occasionally something resembling a normal life." He finished then turned to walk away.

"Do you really think that's an option anymore?" the girl, asked him coolly. Xander stopped and turned back to face her. "You're standing at the mouth of hell, and it's about to open." She reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out a small case. "Don't turn your back on this." She said tossing it to him. "You've got to be ready."

"For what?" Xander asked now feeling a little creeped out.

"For the Harvest." She answered enigmatically.

"Who are you?"

She smiled as she walked by. "Let's just say I'm a friend."

"Yeah, well, maybe I don't need anymore friends." the Slayer shouted defiantly after her.

"I never said I was yours." She returned with another smirk and disappeared into the night.

Xander shook off the feeling of dread the strange girl had left him with and opened the case. Inside was a beautiful silver cross and chain.

"Interesting gift." Xander said to himself.

XXX

Willow had to try very hard not to blush at all the looks she was getting from people (mostly boys) as she and Buffy walked through the Bronze to the bar. Willow hadn't been too keen on Buffy's makeover idea at first but now she was starting to like it.

It began with Buffy doing her hair, putting her long red tresses up into a messy twist leaving a few strands of hair to frame her face. Then she did Willow's make up. Buffy had told Willow that she wouldn't need much, saying that Will had a natural beauty and that they would only accentuate it. A little lipstick and a smidgen of eye shadow was all it took. Next came the outfit.

This was the part of the makeover that Willow was the least comfortable with, at first anyway. She felt almost naked. Buffy had put her in a low cut maroon top that exposed her midriff and a black mini skirt that showed off her legs. Legs that according to Buffy, most girls (and the blond had included herself in this statement) would kill for.

"How you doing Willow?" Buffy asked as they reached the bar and took a seat.

Willow took a deep breath to calm her nerves before answering. "Uh, I'm okay. I could live without the shoes but other than that I'm fine." As it turned out Buffy and Willow were the same shoe size and Buffy had given her a pair of strappy high heels to wear for the evening. They killed her feet but made her calves look spectacular.

"Did you see the way all the boys went totally non verbal when you walked by?" Buffy asked smiling at her new friend. "I bet you get some numbers tonight. Probably even a few date offers."

"Well um, I don't actually date a whole lot…lately."

"Why not?" Buffy asked her. Sure the girl was shy but someone had to have asked her out sometime.

"Well," she said looking thoughtful "when I'm with a boy I like, it's hard for me to say anything cool or witty or at all. I-I can usually manage a few vowel sounds, and then I have to go away."

"It can't be that bad." Buffy said chuckling at the redhead next to her.

"Oh, but it is." Willow said earnestly. "Anyway I think boys are more interested in girls who can talk."

She almost laughed out loud at that. "You really haven't been dating lately."

"It's probably easy for you." Will said with a smirk.

Buffy's face fell as she recalled losing the first boy she had every really cared for. "Yeah, real easy." she answered lamely suddenly starting to feel depressed. It wasn't something Buffy thought about very often. In fact she tried not to think about it at all but in the short time that she and Pike had known each other she had developed some pretty serious feelings for the Slayer. Before the final battle with Lothos he had taken her aside and kissed her. He told then that he felt something for her too and that they would figure things out later. Later never came.

"I mean, you're nice and don't seem too shy." Willow said noticing Buffy's sudden change of expression.

Deciding not to dwell on her problems the former cheerleader perked up and turned to her friend. "Willow, do you want to hear my philosophy on life?" she asked out of the blue.

"Yeah, I do." She answered looking very interested.

"Life is short." Buffy stated simply taking a sip of her drink.

"Life is short." Willow repeated digesting the words.

"Not very original, sure, but it's true." she told her friend. "Why waste all your time worrying about whether or not some guy likes you or if they're going to laugh at you? I say, seize the moment 'cause tomorrow you might be dead."

Willow nodded her head smiling. "That's nice." She said genuinely. Buffy could see that she was really going to take the advice to heart. It made Buffy feel good that her words might have a positive effect on Willow. God knows the girl needed to learn to be a little more assertive and not so timid.

"Well, I've got to hit the ladies room but I'll be right back." Buffy said getting up from her seat.

"Oh, that's okay." Willow said to Buffy. "You don't have to come back."

The Summers girl turned back to Willow and shook her head not believing that she still had to say this. "Willow, I actually enjoy your company." She stated smirking at the timid girl. "So when I say, "I'll be right back" I really mean it. Okay?"

"Okay." She nodded affirmatively. With that Buffy turned and headed for the ladies room.

Willow started looking around the club with a new perspective courtesy of Buffy Summers. "Seize the moment." she said to herself planning to do just that.

XXX

The Bronze was located in the industrial part of town and used to be a warehouse before it had been converted into a club for Sunnydale's adolescent population. Xander could hear the band playing as he approached the club entrance.

Xander flashed the bouncer his ID and paid the cover charge before walking into the club. It had two levels and both were filled with dancing teenagers enjoying the music and company. Now that he was inside Xander could see the band up on stage. Energetic seemed to be a good word to describe their performance as they danced and jumped around the stage.

Xander bobbed his head to the music while looking around the club hoping to see his friends. Not having any luck spotting them he decided to head to the bar to get something to drink. It was as he was navigating through the crush of people to the bar that Xander saw a flash of tweed out the corner of his eye. Looking up to see what exactly had caught his attention Xan beheld something totally unexpected. On the upper tier of the club looking totally out of place in his tweed suit was Giles.

'_I don't believe this.'_ Xander silently groaned as he changed direction and headed for the stairs. When Xander reached the upper level he found Giles standing near the guardrail. He was leaning over it and looking down into the huddled mass of dancing teens on the floor below and hadn't noticed Xander's approach.

"Wow Giles," the Slayer began walking up behind the librarian "I didn't know that you liked to hang with the students outside of school hours? Isn't that kinda dirty?"

If the Watcher was surprised by Xander's sudden appearance he didn't really show it. "Oh, right. This is me having fun." Giles said with annoyance. "Watching clown hair prance about is hardly my idea of a party. I'd much rather be at home with a cup of Bovril and a good book."

"G-man…" Xander started shaking his head.

"Don't call me that."

"…You seriously need to find the fun." Xander continued not even acknowledging the watcher's interruption.

The older man sighed dramatically. "This is a perfect breeding ground for vampire activity." Giles said slipping into lecture-mode. "It's dark, it's crowded. Besides, I knew you were likely to be here for your "night off" and I have to make you understand."

"That the harvest is coming, I got it." The Slayer said rolling his eyes at Giles. "Your friend already gave me a heads up." The Watcher's reaction to hearing this however was not what Xan expected.

"What did you say?" The older man's face became a mask of confusion.

Xander furrowed his brow. "The harvest." He said again noticing that Giles seemed to have no idea what it was he was talking about. "That mean anything to you? 'Cause I got nothing."

"I'm not sure." Giles answered uncertainly. "Who-who told you this?"

"This girl," Xander told his Watcher hesitantly "dark, beautiful in a creepy kind of way. She knew that I'm the Slayer so I figured you two were pals."

"No." The older man said. "Did she say anything else?"

"Something about the mouth of hell." Xan replied. "Did I mention that she was really creepy?" He added as he turned to watch the crowd below. Giles didn't say anything for a moment as he absorbed what Xander had told him. Then the older man sidled up next to Xander.

"Look at them, throwing themselves about," the watcher said into the younger man's ear "completely unaware of the danger that surrounds them."

"Lucky them." For the first time since becoming the Slayer Xander felt truly envious of his peers' blissful ignorance.

"Or perhaps you're right." The Watcher continued. "Perhaps there is no trouble coming. The signs could be wrong." He paused for a moment. "It's not as though you've been having the nightmares." Xander's eyes went wide and he felt his breath hitch at his Watcher's comment.

XXX

Elsewhere in the Bronze Cordelia Chase presided over her flock of mindless sheep. All of them were hanging off of her every word. _'Idiots.'_ Cordy thought to herself as she continued to spout off about nothing.

"My Mom doesn't even get out of bed anymore and the Doctor says it's Epstien-Barr." Cordelia said in disbelief. "I'm like, "Please, it's chronic hepatitis, or at least chronic fatigue syndrome." I mean, nobody cool has Epstien-Barr anymore." Her loyal followers all just nodded like she actually knew what she was talking about.

"Hey, Cordelia." Jesse McNally shouted to the popular girl as he made his way through the crowd.

"Oh, yay, it's my stalker." She said to one of her "friends" sticking her tongue out in disgust.

"Hey, you-you look great." He said with a dopey grin upon reaching the self-proclaimed queen of Sunnydale High.

"Well, I'm glad we had this little chat." Cordelia said clearly trying to blow Jesse off. He however was not deterred.

"Listen, uh, you know," he started uncertainly "you wanna dance, you know?"

"With you?" She asked.

"Well, uh, Yeah." He answered optimistically.

"Well, uh, No." Then she turned to her posse and picked up her drink. "Come on, guys."

Jesse wasn't embarrassed by the dismissal. Unlike most guys his age he could handle rejection. "Fine." The ever-optimistic teenager said letting it just roll right off. "Plenty other fish in the sea." With his confidence rising again he said to no one in particular "Oh yeah, I'm on the prowl." Then he went to mingle in the crowd again with a little strut in his step. "Witness me prowling."

XXX

"Come on Giles, I never said that I didn't want to be the Slayer." Xander said in frustration. They had been arguing for the last five minutes and there was no end in sight. All this not getting anywhere was starting to ware on the Slayer's nerves. "All I'm saying is that I would like to be a part-time Slayer. You know, strike a balance between the normal and paranormal parts of my life?" Xan asked pleadingly. The Look on the Giles' face however clearly said that he didn't agree. Xander decided that he needed to take a different tack.

"Anyway," he began "I'll make a deal with you. Whenever I see a vamp, I promise to stake it dead whether I'm on or off the clock. I'm just not going to be all slay all the tim…"

"Will you be ready?" Giles abruptly cut him off. "There's so much you still don't know about them, about your own powers." The watcher was once again in full lecture mode. "A vampire appears to be completely normal, until the feed is upon them. Only then do they reveal their true demonic visage."

"Seriously, do you practice these speeches in front of a mirror?" Xan asked barely suppressing the urge to roll his eyes. "And FYI, I know this stuff already."

"The point is, a Slayer should be able to see them anyway, with out looking, without thinking." Giles nodded to the rest of the club "Can you tell me if there's a vampire in this building?" he asked.

Xander looked around. "Sure," He said confidently but then became slightly apprehensive "maybe. How hard could it be?"

"You should know." The Watcher said sounding exasperated. "Even through this mass and this din you should be able to sense them." Giles paused then looked at Xander expectantly "Well, try."

Xander started to scan the room with his eyes looking for anything unusual. "Reach out with your mind." The Watcher started giving instruction not realizing that Xander wasn't paying any attention. "You have to hone your senses, focus until the energy washes over you, until you feel every particle of…"

"There's one." Xan said abruptly pointing to a young man down on the dance floor.

"Where?" Giles asked a little thrown at being interrupted during his instruction.

"Right there," He said, again pointing to the boy, "talking to that girl." The young man in question was currently engaged in an animated discussion with a scantily clad redhead on the ground floor.

Giles scoffed clearly not seeing anything out of the ordinary. "You don't know…"

"Oh, come on!" Xander said halting whatever Giles was about to say. "Look at the dude's skin." Xander said pointing out the young man's rather pasty complexion.

"He's pale?" Giles asked uncertainly.

"Pale, he's practically transparent." The Slayer answered. "Trust me, either that guy has been living underground for the last ten years or he wants to be a mime when he grows up."

"But you didn't… hone." Giles said with a little disappointment.

Xan shook his head and turned back to look at the vamp and the girl he was chatting up. Xander finally got a look at her face as she moved around the vampire and felt his heart nearly stop. "Oh, no!"

Noticing his Slayer's reaction Giles followed his line of site and comprehension dawned on the Watcher's face. "Isn't that your…"

"Willow." Xan supplied.

"What's she doing?"

"Putting herself on tonight's menu." Xander replied before quickly leaving Giles to pursue the vamp and his friend.

XXX

By the time Xander reached the Bronze's ground floor Willow and the vamp were nowhere to be seen.

'_This sucks, this sucks, this really sucks!'_ That had become Xander's internal mantra as he searched the club for the pair. Soon he came across a quiet and secluded back area near the stage. To Xander it seemed like the perfect place for a vampire to take an unsuspecting victim. Close to the entrance to the back area there were some wooden chairs stacked near the wall. Stupidly not having brought a weapon tonight Xan improvised snapping the leg off one of the chairs turning it into a makeshift stake.

Now properly armed for slayage, he stalked through the deserted area of the Bronze looking for his best friend. There was very little in the way of lighting in this part of the club and most of the noise from the main area was extremely muted. The walls were painted a dark gray color and covered in band posters. He even saw one poster for "Dingoes Ate My Baby" who in his opinion were the only band in Sunnydale worth listening to.

Xan searched for a few more moments, opening doors and looking around corners but found nothing. He was about to leave to search elsewhere when a door behind him swung open. Reacting purely on instinct the Slayer grabbed his possible assailant by the throat and pinned them to the wall, stake ready to plunge if it turned out to be a member of the undead persuasion.

A pair of startled brown eyes belonging to one Cordelia Chase stared back at Xander. "Oh, it's just you." He said letting go of the teen queen. Taking a step back he felt a little disappointment at not being able to stake the shrew before him. Evil or not she was still human, though Xander would hotly contest that fact if anyone asked him.

It was clear from the rich girl's expression that she wasn't amused. "God!!" She shouted, "What is your childhood trauma?"

"Have you seen Willow around here?" He asked totally disregarding her tone.

"What?" Cordy asked placing her hands on her hips, "Do you need to attack her with the stick?"

Realizing he was still holding the stake out in the open Xander quickly shoved it into his back pocket out of sight. "No, I just need to find her. Its uh… important." He answered looking around finally noticing several members of Cordy's posse standing in the doorway. From the looks on their faces they had witnessed the whole altercation. Xander was pretty sure that whatever social standing he may have had had just been destroyed. Not that it really mattered. He was already considered to be a social leper by the elite of Sunnydale High's student body. How much worse could it possibly get?

"I gotta go." He said as he went back out into the club not particularly caring what Cordy and her harpies thought. Willow was still in danger and he had to find her. That was all that mattered right now.

After he was gone Queen C looked at her followers angrily. "Excuse me." She said in a clipped tone as she pulled a cell phone from her purse. "But I have to call everyone I have ever met right now." Harris had always been a loser but she had never figured him for a psycho.

XXX

Giles had been caught off guard when his Slayer had suddenly gone after the vampire and the redheaded girl. So much so that he had lost sight of the young man. Deciding that it would be easier to find the boy on the ground floor Giles headed for the stairs. It took him a few moments to get down the stairs and through the horde of teenagers to where Xander had disappeared. A couple of minutes later the watcher spotted Xander striding out of the back area of the club. However Giles failed to notice the look of frustration on the Slayer's face.

"Oh." Giles said approaching the Slayer with a proud smile. "That was quick. Well done. Now I need to go to the library. This harvest thing is…"

"I didn't find them." Xander broke in before Giles could get any further. The smile immediately fell from the older man's face.

"The vampire is not dead?" Giles asked forcing Xander to face him.

"No, but I'm sure I just heard what was left of my social life flat-line." The teen fired back utterly confusing the Watcher.

"So what do we do?" Giles asked shaking off the Slayers strange answer.

"I'll take care of it." Xander answered.

"I, I need to come with you, yes?"

"Don't worry G-man." The Slayer was clearly agitated now. "One vampire I can handle." With that the youth broke away from the older man and headed for the exit.

Realizing there wasn't much else he could do here Giles did likewise.

However neither Slayer nor Watcher noticed Jesse McNally talking to a beautiful but far too pale brunette girl near the bar.

"Tanya huh? You know, I haven't seen you around before. Are from around here?" Jesse asked trying desperately to sound cool.

"No, but I have family here." Tanya said smirking devilishly.

"Have I met them?"

Her smirk became a full-blown smile. "You probably will."

XXX

Luke sat transfixed before the pool of blood. Any moment now the sleeper would awake and the preparations for the harvest would begin. The Order of Aurilius had waited almost a half-century for this moment and now the hour of man's destruction was almost nigh.

Luke felt an almost religious fervor spread through himself as a form began to ascend from the pool. The crimson liquid seemed to roll off the figure leaving their black leather clothing immaculate and untouched.

Stepping away from the pool the being stopped before Luke and extended its clawed hand to the vampire. Luke took the offered hand and reverently looked up into the blood red eyes of the one he served above all others.

"Master." He said with awe.

"I am weak." The ancient vampire known as the Master said to his most loyal follower.

"Come the harvest, you will be restored." Luke assured supporting his weakened leader.

"The harvest." The Master repeated with a thoughtful nod.

"We're almost there." Luke confirmed. "Soon you'll be free." The master nodded again and reached out with his free hand. The air shimmered as he pushed against the barrier that kept him imprisoned in this vile place.

"I must be ready." He said pulling his hand away from the barrier. "I need my strength."

"I've sent your servants to bring you some food." Luke informed.

"Good." The Master answered turning to face his servant "Luke."

"Yes?"

"Bring me something…" The Master's smile became truly demonic, "young."

XXX

"Sure is dark." Willow said nervously to Darien as they walked the deserted streets of Sunnydale.

"It's night." he stated plainly.

"Well that's a dark time night. Traditionally" Willow answered apprehensively. She had been all for this "seize the moment" thing before but now she was starting to have doubts. Darien had been real friendly and nice back at the Bronze but now he was starting to act weird. Of course they had just met and maybe he wasn't comfortable around her yet. Deciding that was the problem Willow opted to keep the conversation going.

"I still can't believe I've never seen you around school." Willow continued "Do you have Mr. Chomsky for history?" Darien just smirked at her and kept walking.

"Um, the ice cream bar is this way." Will pointed down the street to their left. "It's past Hamilton Street."

"I know a short cut." The blond boy said taking her by the hand and leading her into Verdant Meadow Cemetery. Willow decided not to argue and go with it. As Buffy said "life is short" might as well enjoy it while you can.

XXX

Xander was almost out the Bronze's exit when a small hand grabbed his arm. "Leaving so soon?" a hauntingly familiar voice asked. Turning to see whom had stopped him Xander was for the third time that day struck by a near sense of deja vu as he again laid eyes on Buffy Summers.

"Uh hi, Buffy." the Slayer started uncertainly as he tried to shake the weird feeling that assailed him every time he saw this girl. "You wouldn't happen to have seen a redheaded girl come past here?" He asked managing to remember what his objective was. "She goes by the name of Willow."

"I know Willow." Buffy answered. "In fact we came together but I lost her a little while ago when I went to the ladies room."

That kind of surprised the Slayer. Girls of Buffy's caliber usually got swallowed up by Cordelia's crowd. "Well she left with a guy." Xander said sounding slightly frantic.

Buffy smiled brilliantly not hearing the distress in Xan's voice "Alright Will! I guess she really took my advice to hear-."

"I need to find her." Xander cut her off abruptly. This time she did notice the stress.

"Why?" Buffy asked not really getting what Xander was so worked up over. Then it hit her like a ton of bricks and her smile instantly fell away. "Oh no, he was a vampire wasn't he, the guy?" With that remark Xander felt the bottom drop out. For five full seconds all he could do was stand there with a shocked look on his face while his mind tried wrap itself around what the girl had just said.

"You know about vampires?" Xander asked finally finding his voice.

"Uh huh," the LA native confirmed with a nod "I also know that you're the Slayer if it helps. Although this isn't quite how I pictured this conversation going."

'_And the hits just keep on coming.' _Xander thought having received a second major shock in as many minutes.

"How in the hell did you find out about…You know what, it doesn't matter." he said shaking his head anxiously. "You can explain later, right now we can either find Willow or find her body in the morning, you can guess which I would prefer."

"Alright," Buffy said agreeing with Xander one hundred percent that saving their friend's life was more important "lets go."

XXX

"Okay, this is nice and uh, scary." Willow said to Darien as the pair continued to walk through the cemetery. Will was starting to wonder if their destination really was the ice cream bar. "Are you sure this is faster?" she asked voicing her unease.

Darien just smirked and ignored her concerns. "Hey, you ever been in one of these?" he asked walking up to a mausoleum and opening its door.

"No thank you." Willow said feeling thoroughly creeped out now. Maybe she could still get back to the Bronze in time to hang out with her friends.

"Come on." Darien said soothingly walking up behind Willow. He then started to brush a few wayward strands of hair away from neck "What are you afraid of?" He asked leaning in and kissing her nape. Willow was about to shove the creep off when she felt a sharp pain where Darien was kissing her. Before she could cry out in protest though Darien grabbed her roughly by the arm and shoved her into the mausoleum. As Willow stumbled into the crypt she managed to steady herself against a large stone coffin in its center.

Turning around Willow reached up to her neck. There was blood on her hand when she pulled it away. The freak had bit her. Darien began to stalk around the mausoleum with a malevolent smirk on his face. Willow started to edge toward the door hoping that she would be able to make a break for it.

"I uh, think I'm gonna go." Willow said fearfully as she finally reached the entrance. However when she turned to run she found her way blocked by a pale brunette girl wearing a malicious expression identical to Darien's.

"Go where little girl?" She asked Willow with a laugh as she came into the tomb. "You can't leave yet. The fun's just getting started." Darien then came around to stand next to the new arrival.

"What do you think of her Tanya?" Darien asked. The girl struck a thoughtful pose and then began to examine Willow as if she were a piece of meat.

"She's fresh." Tanya said with approval. "But she's so small though."

"I know," Darien said agreeing "barely enough to share. You should have brought your own."

Tanya turned to Darien with smug look on her face. "I did." She answered.

"Hey, wait up." At that moment a very dazed Jesse McNally stumbled into the mausoleum holding his neck. He shuffled down the stairs and then nearly collapsed next Willow.

"Oh my god." Willow exclaimed as she noticed the blood and much deeper bite mark on her friend.

Jesse looked at Tanya with a slightly drunken look. "You know," he began weakly "I think you gave me a hickey." Darien turned and gave Tanya a vaguely disappointed look.

"What?" she shrugged "You tasted yours too."

"Come on Jesse, let's get out of here." Willow said as she helped her wobbly friend to his feet.

"Oh, you're not going anywhere." Darien said walking over to the pair.

"Leave us alone!" Willow shouted still trying to support Jesse.

"You're not going anywhere until we've fed!" As he finished Darien's face transformed into a horrifying visage with yellow eyes and sharp fangs. Willow screamed and fell back taking Jesse with her as both Darien and Tanya closed in on them.

"Hey everybody." a new voice spoke from the tomb's entrance causing both monsters to stop and turn around "I've heard of BYOB parties." Xander Harris continued as he too entered the mausoleum with Buffy Summers following right behind. The small tomb was becoming quite crowded. "But I always thought that last B stood for beer not blood."

"Who the hell are you?" Darien asked as he and Tanya now started to circle Xander.

"Oh, you guys don't know." Xander began seeming totally unconcerned that they were trying to box him in. "Phew, I can't tell you what a relief that is. Between Buffy here and the creepy girl earlier I thought I'd blown my cover for sure. Keeping a secret identity, not as easy as it sounds."

"Um, Xander, I think we should book now." Buffy said not liking the two to one odds the Slayer was facing.

"Not yet." Tanya answered for him.

"Xander?" Willow looked at her friend questioningly. He smiled at her reassuringly.

"It's gonna be okay Will, I promise."

"You shouldn't make promises you can't keep." Tanya said snidely. Xan ignored her.

"First of all, what's with the skin?" Xander asked referring to Darien and Tanya's complexions. All the while hoping to distract both vampires just long enough for Buffy to reach Willow and Jesse. "I mean, have you ever heard of spray on tan? It would certainly make you look less conspicuous." A growl from Tanya was all the reply Xander received for that jibe.

The Slayer then turned to face Darien head on. "Okay." Xander said trying to sound serious. "Now, if you have your unbeating heart set on a fight there are a few different ways we can play this. Just so you know, all of them are pretty much guaranteed to end badly for you."

"That's fine with me." Darien said believing the boy in front of him to be bluffing.

"Are you sure?" Xander asked with a confident smile. "This is going to get ugly. Not as ugly as you of course but still." Having had enough of waiting Tanya lunged at Xander from behind. The Slayer slipped his stake under his left arm with the pointy end sticking out from his back and took a small step to the right but didn't turn around. Tanya impaled herself on the sharp piece of wood as she tried wrap her arms around him. The female Vampire fell back with a gasp and exploded into dust. The shocked expression on Darien's demonic face was priceless.

"It's all fun and games until someone gets staked through the heart." Xander chided to the now lone vampire.

"She was young and stupid!" Darien shouted sounding like he still couldn't believe what just happened.

This was the opening Xander had been waiting for. "Buffy, grab them!" The blond girl didn't hesitate. She immediately helped Willow and Jesse to their feet and the trio made a run for the door.

"Don't go far." the vampire shouted after the three retreating teens as he threw a punch at the Slayer. Xander deflected the vampire's punch and then proceeded to beat the living daylights out of the undead leech. The Slayer doubled the vamp over with a kick to the stomach then dropped him to the ground with a double fisted blow to the back. Darien tried to get up but swift kick to the side from Xander sent the vampire rolling to the wall of the mausoleum.

"You know, all I wanted was a nice normal night out with my friends." Xander complained as he pinned the vampire with his foot. "No vampires, no lies, just the three of us hanging out, but no. You had to pick them. You couldn't find someone else to go suck on tonight."

"Who are you?" Darien asked again though this time one could clearly hear fear in the vampires voice.

"Don't you know?" Xander scoffed amused that the vamp hadn't figured it out yet. However all amusement was forgotten when a steely hand grabbed him by the neck from behind and painfully lifted him into the air. Out the corner of his eye Xander could see that it was another much larger vampire that had gotten a hold of him.

The creature smiled cruelly at him and said in answer to Xan's earlier question, "I don't care." The large vamp then threw Xander across the room and into the solid stone wall of the crypt. The force of the impact left the dark haired Slayer stunned for a moment. It had been awhile since he'd experienced anything resembling real pain. Xander remembered now why he didn't much care for the sensation.

The other vampire savagely lifted Darien off the ground by the arm. "You were supposed to be bringing an offering for the Master." he scolded shaking the smaller vamp. "We're almost at harvest, and you dally with this child?"

"We had someone," Darien said fearfully "but then he came. He killed Tanya. Luke he's strong." Meanwhile, Xander was still trying to get to his feet.

"You go." Luke said shoving Darien towards the door "I'll see if I can handle the little boy."

Xander got his bearings back just as Luke came to stand over him. Swiftly rising from the ground the Slayer launched an all out assault ending with a powerful round house kick to Luke's face. However all Xander managed to do was slightly stagger the giant bloodsucker for a moment.

"You're strong." Luke said smiling sadistically and sounding almost impressed. Then he lashed out with a vicious backhanded blow that sent Xander reeling. "I'm stronger."

XXX

"Come on." Willow shouted frantically as she, Buffy and now thanks to the adrenaline rush a much more lucid Jesse ran through the cemetery. "I think the way out is just up here." The sound of a growl stopped the three of them in their tracks. Three vampires had just appeared in front of the trio of fleeing teenagers blocking their way.

"Oh, we are so screwed." Jesse said giving voice to the thoughts of all three teens.

"I couldn't agree more." Darien said coming up behind them.

XXX

"You're wasting my time." Luke growled as he and Xander circled around the mausoleum keeping the stone coffin in-between each other.

"Yeah, well, I had other plans tonight too pal." Xan said nervously. This fight was not going his way. This Luke guy wasn't playing around and unlike most vamps he wasn't at all surprised or daunted by prey that could fight back. Suddenly Luke jumped forward and shoved the cover off of the stone coffin and right at Xander. The Slayer dodged the stone cover then vaulted over the coffin to hit Luke with a two-legged kick that finally knocked the massive vampire down.

Not wasting any time, Xander retrieved the stake he had dropped when Luke backhanded him and went for the killing blow. Unfortunately for Xan, Luke was fast. He intercepted the Slayer's wrist before the stake could pierce his heart.

"You think you can stop me?" He asked the Slayer coldly. "Stop us?" He drove his point home by reaching up with his other hand and snapping Xan's weapon in half. "You have no idea what you're dealing with."

'_This is so not of the good.'_ Was Xander's panicked thought as Luke threw him through the air for a second time. This time Xan fell onto the corner of the coffin and rolled off the edge to land jarringly on the floor. "Ouch." he groaned painfully.

"And like a plague of boils, the race of man covered the Earth." Luke started to preach as he walked toward Xander. "But on the third day of the newest light will come the harvest." Luke was now standing directly over Xander. "When the blood of men will flow as wine, when the Master will walk among them once more." With eyes full of malice the vampire looked down at the Slayer. "The Earth will belong to the old ones and hell itself will come to town." He picked Xander up by the shirt and then threw him over his head and into the now opened coffin.

Xander let out a startled gasp when he came face to face with the desiccated remains of the tomb's occupant. Xander gathered what remained of his wits and was about to see where Luke went when the large vampire jumped into the coffin as well.

"Amen." Luke said as he pinned Xander in place and closed in to drain the young Slayer dry.


	2. Chapter 2A

Authors Note; PLEASE READ!

Hey everyone. Sorry for the ridiculously long time between updates. I'll endeavor to get things out faster from now on but I'm not making any promises. Anyway here is the first half of section two. I'd give you the whole thing but the second half isn't quite ready yet. That and I wanted to give you guys something so that you wouldn't think that I had abandoned this. Also thanks to the few of you who reviewed the first section. I appreciate any feedback that I get and please feel free to throw any ideas my way. Okay, so lets get this show on the road.

Xander the Vampire Slayer

Book One

Chapter 2 A

Harvest

In every generation there is a Chosen One. He alone will stand against the Vampires, Demons and the forces of darkness. He is the Slayer.

XXX

'_I'm dead.'_ That was all Xander Harris could think as the monstrous vampire descended on him, fangs out and intent on draining him dry. Still the slayer struggled for all he was worth to get free but the undead bastard had him completely pinned. All the super-strength in the world didn't mean a damn if you couldn't get the leverage to use it.

Luke was only centimeters away from cutting Xander's life tragically short when the vampire suddenly reared back howling in pain and subsequently releasing his death grip on the slayer. Looking down at the hand he had been using to hold the boy in place Luke spotted the source of his pain. In the center of his palm there was a smoldering vaguely cross-shaped burn mark.

Now that his arms were free Xander reached up to where the bloodsucker had been holding him down and felt the cross that his very attractive benefactor from the alley had given him. Sometime during the fight it had fallen out from under his shirt. Luke must have placed his hand on it when he was restraining Xander and got burned. If he ever saw his mystery girl again Xander would have to remember to thank her.

Luke was still staring at the smoking wound the holy object had inflicted on him when Xander got his legs free. The slayer kicked the vamp as hard as he could in the face literally launching the creature into the air and out of the coffin. Now that the overgrown leech was stunned Xan didn't waste any time getting out of the stone casket and bolting for the mausoleum's door. On some instinctual level Xander just knew that he wouldn't be able to beat Luke there. One of the first lessons Giles had taught him about slaying was to always listen to his instincts. Right now they were screaming at him to get the hell out of the tomb that had almost become his own final resting-place.

His spidey-sense started to calm down after he put a little over half a football field's worth of distance between himself and the mausoleum. If Luke was going to chase after him he would have done so by now. The slayer was just getting his bearings back when the growl of a vampire and a cry for help reached his sensitive ears. Without a moments hesitation Xan sprinted toward where the noise was coming from.

"Get off!" Xander heard Buffy shout angrily as he came into a small clearing in the cemetery and surveyed the situation. With a vampire pinning her to the ground and moving in for the kill, Sunnydale's newest resident had found herself in a similar position to the one Xander had just barely escaped from moments ago.

"Hey, overbite." Xander yelled at the vamp trying to divert the demon's attention away from his new friend. It worked as the bloodsucker looked up to see who was interrupting his evening meal and then caught a heavy boot in the jaw knocking him aside. Deciding that this feast on legs was more trouble than she was worth the vamp cut his losses and scurried away into the darkness.

"Come on." Xander reached down and effortlessly hauled Buffy to her feet. "Where are the others?"

"I don't know." Buffy said remorsefully. "When the vampire knocked me down I lost sight of them."

"Which way did the vampires come from?" Xan asked trying very hard not to lose his own cool.

"That way." Buffy pointed to the north of the cemetery.

"Let's go." the Slayer nodded. The pair set off in the direction that Buffy had indicated. Xander hoped that they were going the right way and that they weren't too far behind.

It was moments later that Buffy spotted a pair of vampires about twenty meters ahead dragging a very unconscious Jesse McNally behind them. "Hey!" She shouted trying to grab their attention. It worked as both bloodsuckers stopped to see who was yelling at them, inadvertently giving Xander all the time he needed to close the distance. The vampires released their hold on Jesse as Xander knocked them both aside with a punch-kick combo.

One vamp managed to get away in the confusion. The other however quickly found a branch imbedded in his chest. The slayer had snapped it off a nearby tree while the creature of the night had been stunned. The vamp only had enough time to look surprised before it dusted.

"Oh, my poor noggin." Jesse moaned as he regained consciousness clutching his head.

"Where's Willow?" Buffy asked him while helping him to sit upright.

"I don't know." He answered miserably. "That blond guy grabbed her and took off. I tried to stop him but he walloped me pretty good."

Xander scanned the immediate area hoping to see some sign of his friend but there was none. As he helped Buffy get Jesse off the ground all Xander could think was that this was all his fault.

XXX

Willow was scared. No, scratch that. She was absolutely terrified. The only reason she hadn't passed out yet was because she didn't want to be unconscious while being flanked by two monsters.

They had been walking for what seemed like an eternity. They were underground, Willow knew that much. But she had no idea where. All the tunnels looked the same.

They were coming into what looked like a cave when she slipped and the big one grabbed her roughly.

"Keep moving." He snarled at her. The chamber looked like it had once been a church. How it got underground though she didn't know.

"Is this for me?" an amused voice asked.

Willow had thought she had been afraid before but the figure that came out of the shadows inspired a whole new level of terror. Unlike the two monsters holding her the being standing before her didn't contain even a shred of humanity.

"An offering for you Master." Luke said.

"She's a good one." Darien said stepping forward excitedly. "Her blood is pure."

The Master's blood red eyes narrowed dangerously. "You've tasted her." He stated. "I'm your faithful pet. You bring me scraps."

"I-I didn't mea…" Darien stuttered fearfully.

"I have been waiting here for decades!" the ancient vampire said angrily "While you come and go I am trapped here in this house of…" the Master visibly shuddered "…worship!" He stalked menacingly forward. "My ascension is almost at hand. Pray that when it comes." Suddenly his hand shot forward to seize Darien by the throat. "I'm in a better mood."

"Master, forgive me." Darien pleaded. "We had more offerings but there was trouble, a boy."

"There was a boy." Luke said coming to Darien's aid. "He fought well and knew of our breed. It is possible that he may be…"

"A Slayer." The Master finished for his most devoted lieutenant and released his hold on Darien. Well that would certainly explain why more of his children than usual hadn't been coming home recently "Do you have any proof?" he asked.

"Only that he fought me and still lives Sire." Luke answered.

The Master nodded in agreement. "Very nearly proof enough. In fact I can't remember the last time that happened."

"1843, Madrid." Luke supplied sounding sheepish. "He caught me sleeping."

"Well, he must not be allowed to interfere with the Harvest." The Master said giving Luke a significant look.

"I would never let that happen." Luke stated adamantly.

"I wouldn't worry about it." The Master told him reassuringly. "I believe he'll come to us. We have something he wants." With that his red gaze locked onto Willow. She was really hoping that they had forgotten about her. "If he is indeed a slayer and this girl lives, he'll try to save her."

"I believed you to be nothing more than a meal girl." Luke smiled wickedly at her. Willow flinched away from his evil grin. "Congratulations, you just became far more valuable. Now you're bait."

XXX

It had been just shy of two o'clock in the morning when Xander, Buffy and Jesse had arrived at Sunnydale General's emergency room. After the fight in the cemetery the slayer had been incredibly torn about what to do next. Part of him wanted to do nothing more than go after Willow. To search high and low and not stop until he found her.

But he also had a responsibility to Jesse and Buffy. He couldn't leave them on their own. Especially considering Jesse's condition. The poor guy had lost quite a bit of blood and probably had a concussion. So it had been decided that they would make their way to Sunnydale General to get Jesse checked out at the ER.

It had been surprisingly easy to pull one over on the hospital staff. A Dr. Marks had asked them what had happened when they walked in. Xander had told him jokingly that Jesse had had an unfortunate run-in with a barbecue fork after getting a bump on the head. The doc had shrugged and then said without even a hint of irony that he had seen that happening a lot lately. The Slayer probably would have laughed if things hadn't been so serious. After that Dr. Marks took Jes for treatment.

That had been almost two hours ago. Now, Xander was sitting in one of those very uncomfortable plastic hospital chairs, holding an icepack a nurse had given him over a livid bruise on his right arm. All the while feeling quite sorry for himself. He couldn't have imagined a worse way for this night to have gone. Willow had been taken and he had gotten his ass handed to him by a sermonizing vampire. Maybe his parents were right about him; maybe he was just a screw up.

"So," Buffy started taking the seat next to him "how much longer are you going to sit around beating yourself up over things that aren't actually your fault?"

Xander sighed "I don't know. I've got a pretty good brood going here."

"Well, I think happy looks better on you." Buffy replied as she pulled the ice pack away to look at his arm. The bruise had almost faded completely. "Wow, you heal fast."

"I am most definitely Wolverine-like." Xander said with a small smile. Sitting there talking to Buffy was giving him that déjà vu feeling again but this time it was in a good way.

"Wha?" the blank look on Buffy's face classic.

"I suppose comic book references are gonna be lost on you, huh?"

"Yep." She agreed with a nod.

"The uber fast healing is a slayer thing." He explained motioning to his arm.

"Oh, I know all about slayers." Buffy sounded almost sad when she said that.

Xan suddenly remembered the hurried conversation the two had shared at the Bronze right when this night had started to spiral out of control. From the way Buffy had talked it was obvious that she wasn't just now coming to terms with the existence of the supernatural. It seemed as if she had known about it for sometime.

"Yeah," Xander started "I wanted to ask you about how you found me out."

"Well, I was in the library today after lunch, tracking down the textbooks I needed when I kinda accidentally eavesdropped on your conversation with Mr. Giles." Buffy told him looking a little embarrassed. "That's a funny expression isn't it, eavesdropping? Like, how exactly do you drop an eave?" She rambled.

"That explains how you found out about me but I'm getting the feeling that none of this stuff was new information to you."

"Yeah." Buffy said taking a deep breath. "I know that I've only been at school for a day but that should have been plenty of time for you to hear some of the rumors flying around about me."

Xan nodded. "You mean like the one about you burning down the gym at your last school?"

"That's the one and it's completely true." Buffy confirmed. "Well, mostly true anyway."

"Alright." Xander said taking the bait although he couldn't really see Buffy as the arson type. "But I don't see what that has to do with you already knowing about the supernatural?"

"You see… the gym was kinda infested with vampires at the time." She explained. "And you know exterminators, they're fantastic at killing cockroaches but they're not so great when it comes to the undead."

"Ah yes, and they probably would have charged an arm and a leg for a job like that too." The slayer added. "It was probably a lot cheaper to just burn the place down yourself. I applaud you on your thrifty yet effective approach to vamp slayage." Xan paused for a moment to let the reality of what was just said sink in, then he said "Okay that's one rumor down. What about the one that has you running around with a gang member at your old school?"

"He wasn't in a gang!" Buffy angrily denied but then softened her tone. "He would've had to have friends for that."

Xan could see that this was a touchy subject but for some reason he felt compelled to go on. "Okay, so if he wasn't in a gang then who was he?" Xander asked.

"His name was Oliver Pike. He was the vampire Slayer before you."

To say that Xan was intrigued by that revelation would have been an understatement. Even with everything that was going on he was still very curious about other slayers. He was about to ask her to continue when Jesse finally came out of the exam area followed by Dr. Marks.

As they got closer Xan could see that Jesse was now sporting a bandage over the bite on the left side of his neck. The slayer also noticed that his friend was holding an ice pack to the back of his head.

"Hey Jesse-man, how you feeling?" Xander asked getting up from his seat.

"Pretty good," Jesse answered with a small wince "except for you know, the minor blood loss, the neck wound and the raging headache I've got. But other than that I'm great." Jesse's sarcasm was so thick it could be cut with a knife.

"You're friend is going to be just fine." Dr. Marks told the teens. Then he turned to address Jesse "Now Mr. McNally, are you sure that you don't want me to try and get a hold of your parents?"

"Yeah." Jesse answered sounding embarrassed "It's the middle of the night and they're on vacation. I don't want to worry them just because I was doing something very teenage and stupid." Right then Xander knew that Jesse was lying. His parents weren't on vacation. In fact the McNallys never went anywhere. Jes was covering for them.

"Alright then." Dr. Marks said. "But you and your friends be more careful around sharp cooking implements." He told the trio seriously before he walked away.

"Yeah, cause those barbecue forks are so vicious." Buffy commented under her breath.

"Personally I thinks it's the potato peelers that you have to watch out for. Sure they seem harmless but they'll skin you alive when you least expect it." Xander added. Buffy couldn't help but chuckle.

"Okay guys." Jesse said getting their attention, his tone serious. "I just lied to a healthcare professional. So I would kinda like to know exactly what happened tonight?"

Xander could respect that his friend wanted answers and he fully intended to supply them. But a hospital waiting room was not the place to have this particular discussion.

"Alright Jesse-man," Xander began "I'll get you the answers you need, but we can't do this here. Let's head to the school." Giles would be able tell Jesse what he needed to know. Also the watcher needed to know what happened. Xan just hoped he didn't get an "I told you so" speech.

XXX

"This world is far older than any of you know." Giles lectured to Xander, Buffy and Jesse as he went through the library stacks gathering pertinent reference materials. "Contrary to popular mythology, it did not begin as a paradise. For untold eons demons walked the Earth." He momentarily halted his explanation as he came down the small staircase from the stacks. "They made it their home, their Hell. But in time they lost their purchase on this reality and the way was made for mortal animals, for man." Giles paused again as he set the books that he had gathered down on the reading table. "All that remains of the Old Ones are vestiges, certain magicks, certain creatures."

"And vampires, don't forget about them." Xander added to the watcher's explanation.

"Vampires are real?" Jesse asked his incredulous tone clearly implying that he was seriously questioning the sanity of everyone in the room. "This is without a doubt the most surreal discussion I have ever had."

"How else would you explain what you witnessed last night Mr. McNally?" Giles asked.

However before Jesse could respond Buffy did it for him. "No, those weren't vampires." Buffy began dramatically. "Those were just guys in thunder need of a facial. Or maybe they had rabies. It could have been rabies." She said with mock hysteria. "And that girl bursting into dust? Just a trick of light." The girl from L.A. finished with a nonchalant wave of her hand. "Believe me, I said all the same things the first time I saw a vampire." Then she paused. "Well, after I finished screaming anyway."

"That goes ditto for me." Xander said backing Buffy up "Except for the screaming part." At that Giles gave the slayer a pointed look that said that the young man was being less than honest. Xander noticed the glare and amended reluctantly "Okay, there may have been some very manly bellowing, but there was definitely no screaming."

Giles shook his head. _'Whatever the boy has to tell himself I suppose.'_

"Okay," Jesse began "let's totally suspend reality here for a moment and say I believe you. What are we gonna do about this?"

"There is no "we" Jes, there's just me." Xander said with a serious tone that was most unusual for the young man.

Jesse looked at Xander like he'd grown a second head. "How exactly does that work?"

"He's the Slayer." Buffy answered knowingly. Giles gave the Summers girl a questioning look at that.

"You seem to be quite knowledgeable about slayers Miss Summers?" The watcher queried.

"Oh, I knew the one before Xander." Buffy told him simply.

"Really." The watcher said perking up excitedly at the new information. "Maybe you could give me your…"

"Guys!" Jes shouted getting everyone's attention. "I'm sure this is fascinating but I have no idea what a slayer is?"

"Giles?" Xan questioned looking to his mentor.

The Brit took a deep breath. "As long as there have been vampires there has been the Slayer. The one boy in all the world with the power to…"

"He loves doing this speech." Xander said to his friends interrupting the watcher.

"Fine." Giles sighed in consternation. "Vampires exist, Xander is the Slayer, he alone has the power to hunt them and you should keep all this to yourself. That should be all the vampire information you need."

At that moment it all came together quite suddenly for Mr. McNally. The stupid excuses, the constantly being late and all Xan's time recently spent in the library. Xander Harris had been living a double life and hadn't bothered to inform his two best friends of the possible danger they were all in. The look Jesse gave Xander upon coming to this revelation was filled with anger and betrayal. "Why didn't you ever tell me or Will any this stuff Xan?"

"Jesse-man, believe me I wanted to tell you but…" Xander began defensively before Jesse cut him off.

"But, but what? Give me a good reason for why my best friend has been lying to me."

"I thought I was protecting you and Will." Xan said quietly.

"Protecting us?" Jesse asked with a humorless chuckle. "Good job brother." Xander was about to make a retort when Buffy cut into the heated conversation.

"Hey!" She shouted at the two teenage males. "I get that you're pissed," Buffy said to Jesse "but yelling at Xander isn't going to help us get Willow back."

Jesse was about to round furiously on Buffy but Xander stopped him. "She's right." He told his friend firmly. "This isn't getting us anywhere."

The reminder that Willow was in trouble and needed help seemed to cool Jesse down considerably. He was still upset over all of this but he was willing to put his feeling aside for the moment. "Alright," Jes said taking a deep calming breath, letting go of most of his anger "where we're we before I went off?"

Giles cleared his throat reminding the three adolescent youths that he was still in the room. "I hate to be the one to say this but it is very unlikely that your friend is still alive."

"I don't think they were just looking for take out last night G-man." Xander said shaking his head in disagreement. "The big one that used me as a punching bag said something about collecting offerings for the Master." The slayer told his watcher. "I don't know what that means but if they weren't just feeding then Willow might still be okay."

Giles took his glasses off and began to polish them. "Alright, if that is indeed the case then the question becomes where did they take her?"

"I looked around but as soon as they got out of the cemetery they could have just, vroomed!" Xander finished making a taking off motion.

"They can fly?" Jesse asked in disbelief.

"They can drive." Xander and Buffy answered in unison.

"Oh." Jes said awkwardly "Well, I know that I was nearly concussed at the time but I don't remember hearing a car."

Giles sighed heavily. "Let's make an enormous intuitive leap and say that they went underground."

"Pike told me once that vamps really jam on sewers." Buffy said. "They can get just about anywhere without having to worry about catching any rays."

"There's an electrical tunnel that runs beneath the whole town." Xander added. "But I didn't see any access around there."

"I suppose we could go to the building commission and see if they will let us look at the plans for the tunnel?" Giles ventured looking to his charge.

"Willow doesn't have that kind of time Giles." Xan said shooting down the idea.

"Um, guys." Jesse spoke up grabbing the attention of the group. "I think I might know another way to get a look at those plans."

Fifteen minutes later.

Jesse McNally would never claim to be "Willow Smart" but he did know his way around a computer. On the monitor before him flashed images of blueprints and diagrams for the town's underground service tunnels. Now all he had to do was find the right one.

"So the town's plans are just open to the public via computer?" the librarian asked uncertainly.

Jesse just smirked. "They are if you know how to find them."

"I'm sensing a story here." Xander said eyeing his friend suspiciously.

"Remember last summer when Willow and I spent a whole week talking nothing but computer?" Jesse asked the smug expression never leaving his face.

"I remember my eyes glazing over from the sheer amount of nerdspeak coming out of your mouths." The slayer answered.

"The nerdspeak as you call it was actually Willow and I figuring out how to decrypt the city council's security system." Jesse told his friend. "We came across these after we did."

"Sounds like someone's been naughty." Buffy said with a grin.

Jesse just grinned right back. "It's only naughty if you get caught." Jes replied as he continued to scroll through the schematics.

"Stop." Xan ordered firmly and Jesse complied. "This is the one." The slayer said pointing to the screen. "It runs beneath the graveyard but I can't make out where the access should be." Xander felt beyond frustrated. "This is useless!" He shouted. "I'm wasting time that Will doesn't have because I'm not smart enough read a stupid diagram."

"I think you're being a bit hard on yourself." Giles pointed out to the clearly agitated young man.

Xander rounded on the watcher. "Aren't you the one who told me yesterday that I wasn't taking things seriously enough?" He asked the older man. "Understatement. I thought I had things under control and then that monster Luke came out of nowhere…" Xander trailed off as he suddenly got a flash of insight.

The scene from last night in the tomb replayed in slow motion in his mind. The smaller vamp was on the floor in front of him and to the right of the doorway begging for mercy. Then Luke grabbed him from behind.

"Xander, what is it?" Buffy asked with concern

"He didn't come out of nowhere." Xander suddenly said as he came back to himself. "He came from behind me. I was facing the door when he showed up and when I got away he didn't follow me out." He looked to his friends as the realization fully hit him. "The entrance into the tunnels is in the mausoleum." It was so obvious. "The guy that grabbed Willow must have doubled back after I made my escape." Xander mentally berated himself for not figuring it out sooner.

"Alright, we know where they are so let's go." Buffy said eagerly.

"Buff, "we" are not going anywhere." He said trying very hard not to sound condescending. "I'm the Slayer and you're not. I'm sorry but this is my mess to fix." There was a look of defiance in Buffy's eyes and Xan could tell that she wasn't taking no for an answer.

"Somehow I knew you were going to say that." Buffy told him shaking her head.

"I appreciate that you want to help." Xander told her. "But this is extremely dangerous. I don't want anything happening to anybody else."

"Why do slayers think that they have to do everything on their own?" the former cheerleader asked rhetorically her tone filled with frustration.

'_Probably because there's never been more than one of us at a time.'_ Xander thought in answer to her question, but for once he was smart enough to not actually say what he'd been thinking.

"Buffy," Jesse said getting the blonde's attention "I kinda have to agree with the Xan-man on this one. Uh, I mean, I feel like I need to help too but I don't think that either of us would be much good to anyone in a dark tunnel filled with monsters."

"Well then, maybe you could help me?" Giles proposed offering up an alternative to the two normal teenagers. "I've been researching this Harvest affair." He said while leaning over Jesse's shoulder to look closer at the computer. "It seems to be some preordained massacre, rivers of blood, hell on Earth." He looked around at the teens in the room. "Quite charmless. I'm a bit fuzzy, however, on the details." Then he looked to Jesse directly. "It may be that you can wrest some information from that dread machine." The librarian finished nodding to the computer.

After several long moments of silence Giles glanced up to see that the all three teens were giving him decidedly funny looks. _'Americans.'_ He thought wryly.

"That was a bit, uh, British, wasn't it?" the older man asked.

"Welcome to the New World G-man." Xander said with a small smile.

"I want you to go on the Net." Giles clarified for Jesse.

"Oh, yeah, I can do that." The lanky boy smiled in understanding and then got to work.

"Then I'm gone. If Willow's alive I'll get her back." Xander said turning for the library doors.

"Do I have to tell you to be careful?" Giles called after him. The slayer turned back to his mentor and gave the older man a reassuring smile.

"Hey, it's me." Xander said doing his best Han Solo impression, then he was out the doors.

"That's what I'm afraid of." The librarian muttered under his breath.

XXX

Xander was surprised to see that classes had already started for the day as he went to exit the school grounds. A lot had happened last night and early this morning and he had completely lost track of time. At least he wasn't feeling tired even though he hadn't slept at all during the in-between. Xan wasn't sure if it was his slayerness or the fact that he was still a teenager that allowed him to pull an all-nighter without any ill effects. Either way Xander was just thankful that he was wide-awake and alert. He would need to be completely on his game if he wanted to rescue Willow.

"Where do we think we are going?" the unmistakable voice of Principal Flutie asked causing Xander to roll his eyes and mentally swear. He had almost made it out the gate.

"Hi Bob." Xander said turning to face the older man with a smile. Xan's grin became even wider when he saw Mr. Flutie wince at the use of his first name. The guy should have known better then to tell the students that it was all right to call him Bob. "I wasn't going anywhere. I just wanted to, uh." Xan verbally stumbled as he tried to come up with an excuse. "To, um, check out this fence." He told Flutie resting his hand on the metal work. "I was thinking of going into construction someday and this is one well put together fence."

"That's pretty good Mr. Harris." Flutie answered with a knowing look. Xander could tell that the educator hadn't believed a single word that he had just said. "Now what were you really doing?"

"You see I'm kinda Mr. Giles' student aide this period and I told him that my friend Willow didn't make it to school today and that I was worried about her." When all else fails, go with the truth or at the very least, a variation of the truth. It totally throws off the adults. "So I asked him if it would be alright if I bailed for a bit so I could go check on her. He said it was cool, you can go talk to him if you want."

"Oh, well I'm sorry to hear about your friend but the policy is that no student is to leave school grounds while classes are in session." The principal told Xander firmly as he closed and locked the gate. "However if you are truly worried about your friend I would be more than willing to let you make a phone call from the office." Flutie said in a more compassionate tone.

"No that won't be necessary." Xander said feigning nonchalance "I'm sure she's fine and that there's nothing wrong. I'm probably just being paranoid."

Mr. Flutie smiled amiably and patted Xander on the shoulder "See, that's the Alexander Harris I want in my school. A sensible young man with his feet on the ground who doesn't let his imagination run away with him." Flutie turned to check the lock on the gate one more time and was satisfied that Xander wouldn't be going anywhere. "Have a good day Mr. Harris."

"You too Bob." Xan took a little pleasure in seeing the educator flinch again at the use of his first name as he went to walk away. Luckily the older man decided to keep on walking. As soon as he was gone the slayer began to examine the iron gate. The lock was a just a standard padlock and Xander knew that he could easily break it. However that was probably not the best idea. If Mr. Flutie came by here again and saw it broken, it wouldn't take him long to figure out who was responsible. That left Xander with only one other option. Looking up at the fence Xan judged its height to be just shy of nine feet. He could make that easily, the slayer thought with a smug smile.

Xander looked around the immediate area making sure that no one was watching before he set himself. As usual not a single person was even paying attention to the actions of one Xander Harris, which was just fine with him. He faced away from the fence and bent his knees, his incredibly powerful muscles coiling in preparation for what he was about to do. Xan took a quick breath to center himself. Then suddenly the teen sprang impossibly high into the air and back flipped over the iron fence landing soundlessly on the other side. Xander looked up at the tall fence again and shook his head with a rueful smile.

"Too easy." The slayer left then, heading determinedly in the direction of the Verdant Meadows cemetery.

XXX

"Rain of toads?" Jesse asked with an air of disbelief as he and Buffy walked through the halls of Sunnydale High. Jesse had computer science this period and he had decided that he might be able to compile the info they needed faster if he used the newer systems in the computer lab.

"Yeah, rain of toads." Buffy answered confirming what she had just said. "Hey, you asked for weird and wiggsome things to put into your search motor."

"Search engine." Jes corrected without missing a beat. "It's just that in my entire life I never thought that "rain of toads" would be something that I'd have to worry about."

Buffy just shrugged. "Kind of an eye opener isn't it?"

"No kidding." The lanky boy sighed. "And no one else even has a clue." He waved his hand at the other students milling around in the halls.

"Yep, and we can't tell them either." Buffy followed up. "Unless of course you want to be committed? Personally I prefer to stay away from the men in white coats."

"Being called crazy certainly would put a crimp in your social life." he agreed.

"Not to mention all the trouble I'd have trying to find a purse that looks good with a straitjacket." Buffy added seriously. "Accessorizing is important after all." The two teens both paused for a moment after that, then they both cracked up laughing. This was probably one of the most ridiculous conversations either one of them had ever had.

The pair composed themselves after a moment. "Okay," Buffy said catching her breath and pointed to the computer lab "seriously though, shouldn't you be getting to class?"

"You mean "we" right?" Jesse asked giving the new girl a curious look. "We should get to class…or do you have other plans?" Buffy looked away from him and didn't say anything. Her not so subtle avoidance of the question told him everything he needed to know. "You're gonna follow Xander aren't you?" She still didn't respond. "Buffy, I'm new to this stuff and even I think that's a bad idea of epic proportions."

"I just feel so useless." Was Buffy's frustrated reply. "You're doing this computer stuff, Giles is hitting the books and Xander has gone to save the day all by himself." She slumped against a row of lockers looking angry. "Meanwhile I'm just sitting here twiddling my thumbs. I'm not the damsel in distress anymore damn it! I want to help."

Jes could see that this really bothered her and that she was determined to do something about it regardless of what he or anyone else said. "Okay go, I'll cover for you." She looked up at him with a surprised expression. Clearly she had been expecting him to argue with her about this. "But promise me that you'll be careful and won't do anything too stupid."

"I promise." She said unexpectedly giving him a hug, "Thanks Jesse."

"You better get moving if you want to catch up with him." At his prompting she turned to go. "Oh and Buffy?"

"Yeah." She replied turning back.

"If Xander asks, you tell him I threatened to tie you up rather than let you go but you managed to escape from me."

"Sure thing." Buffy said with a smile as she went to exit the school building "Wouldn't want him to kick your ass for letting poor little defenseless me out of your sight."

XXX

Verdant Meadows cemetery was definitely a lot less sinister in daylight than it had been the night before. If anything it was kinda peaceful.

'_Too bad it's all just an illusion like everything else in this town.'_ Xander silently mused as he walked through the rows of headstones. Since last night Xan had been reevaluating his position on his hometown being a place of normalcy with a slight vampire problem. Too many things just didn't make sense when you put them together. For example, yesterday everyone (including himself to a lesser degree) was fairly blasé about a dead girl popping up in a locker. That should have sent up some red flags, right? Instead though it became a subject for gossip that lasted for about an hour and was then forgotten like it never happened.

When Xander thought back on it, people in this town disappeared and died all the time and no one ever said anything about it. He couldn't even begin to count all the funerals and memorials he'd attended growing up. Why had that never seemed odd to him before?

Also the trip to the hospital the night before had been kind of a revelation as well. Xander hadn't expected to be taken seriously at all with his barbecue fork crack and yet the doctor hadn't even questioned it. In fact he had told them that he saw that kind of thing all the time. What the hell!

'_Giles is right, there is something seriously wrong with this town.'_ The slayer thought as he found the mausoleum he'd been looking for. _'And would I have ever noticed if I hadn't become the slayer?'_ That thought was not a pleasant one.

The wrought iron gate on the tomb squeaked ominously as Xander pushed it open. He kept his guard up as he entered, half expecting that there would be a dozen vampires waiting to ambush him. So Xan was quite relieved when the place turned out to be empty. Well mostly empty anyway. Xander's heightened senses detected one person lurking in the shadows but the slayer knew who it was the moment he spotted them. He chose to ignore the tomb invader for the moment though as he crossed the room. At the back he found another gate with a heavy chain and lock on it. What was it with him and locks today?

"I don't suppose you have the key for this do ya?" he asked the lurker in a hopeful tone not bothering to turn around.

"They really don't like me dropping in." the mystery girl from the alley said stepping out of the shadows.

"Why not?" Xander asked crossing his arms as he turned to face her.

"They really don't like me." She answered enigmatically with a sly smile.

"With people skills like yours? That's hard to believe." Xan shot back sarcastically.

"I knew you'd figure out this entryway sooner or later." She started completely disregarding the slayer's attempt at wit. "Actually, I thought it was going to be a little sooner." She finished acerbically.

"Okay, I don't want to fight with you." Xander made a placating gesture. "In fact I wanted to thank you."

"Why?" she asked puzzled by the shift in conversation.

Noticing her confusion Xander pulled the cross he was wearing out from underneath his shirt. It was the one she had given him the night before. "This kinda saved my bacon last night. So, thank you. I'll try to be less irksome from now on."

"Oh, um," she replied sounding unsure "you're welcome."

"Anyway," the slayer said with a shrug "if you're going to be showing up with this whole cryptic wise-girl act on a regular basis how about you give me a name to go with that pretty face of yours?"

"Angel." She told him smiling again.

"Just Angel huh?" Xander replied with a smirk. "Is that like Cher or Madonna?"

"I thought you said you were going to be nice?" Angel asked though she sounded more amused than upset by his crack about her name.

"Sorry." the slayer apologized sincerely. "Smart-ass is kind of my default setting." He told her as he turned back to the gate.

"Uh, don't go down there." Angel said anxiously taking a step forward.

"Well you'll have to deal with my going." Xander rounded back to face the girl again. "Cause it's non-negotiable."

"You shouldn't be putting yourself at risk." Angel told him sounding concerned. "Tonight is the Harvest. Unless you can prevent it…the Master walks." She finished darkly.

"Well if this Harvest thing is such a suckfest and you hate vamps so much, why don't you do something about it?" Xan asked.

"'Cause I'm afraid." Angel chuckled grimly shaking her head.

Without warning Xander lashed out at the door with a fierce kick. The slayer's blow was so powerful it shattered the chain and nearly broke the gate off its hinges.

"They'll be expecting you." Angel stated with certainty.

"One of my best friends is down there and I won't leave her in that pit when I can do something about it." Xan told her. "Otherwise what's the point of being the slayer if I can't even protect the people that are close to me?"

"Your friends mean a lot to you, don't they?" The dark haired girl asked, her expression becoming almost wistful at the concept.

"Yeah, don't yours?" Angel looked uncertain about how to answer the question. The lost expression that appeared on her face spoke volumes to Xander. "You don't really have any friends do you?"

"Not for a very long time." The mysterious girl confirmed. That just seemed unnatural to Xander. Everyone should have a friend. Before he could comment on that though she spoke again.

"When you hit the tunnels, head east toward the school." She instructed. "That's where you're likely to find them."

Xander nodded as he absorbed the information. "So, you gonna wish me luck?" the slayer asked. Silence was Angel's only response. "Yeah, I don't really like my chances either." Xan uttered quietly as he went through the broken gate and entered the underground labyrinth beneath Sunnydale.

Angel watched as the slayer vanished into the darkness. When he was gone she whispered softly "Good luck."


	3. Chapter 2B

Author note.

Hey readers. I bet y'all thought this was a dead story. Truth is this section has been sitting on my hard drive mostly finished for about a year and a half. Just been kinda busy with life and hadn't really had the time to finish up the last little bit. I'd started work on the sections or episodes that will follow this but I've been having a terrible time trying to get the end to this finished to my satisfaction. Honestly it's still not as good as I wanted it to be but I figured if I waited for it to be that good y'all would never see it. Anyway I can always go back and revise the parts I'm not happy with later. Lucas does it all the time. Well then nothing left say but on with show and please enjoy.

XXX

The Sunnnydale High library was as usual nearly devoid of life. It's only occupant being the school librarian Rupert Giles. Who was at the moment seated at the main reading table hunched over a large pile of books and muttering quietly to himself. Researching the Harvest had been slow going for the watcher. He had found several references to various rituals all called the Harvest but most had nothing to do with vampires. It was on his second read through of _'The Almanac of Arcane Events'_ that he finally found what he was looking for.

"For they will gather and be gathered…" Giles read aloud from the text before him "…from the vessel pours life." He looked up from the tome. "Pours life?" He said again. That sounded familiar. Giles grabbed another ancient book from the pile on the table and flipped through its pages until he found what he was looking for.

'_Yes, this is it.'_ The watcher thought triumphantly as he studied the manuscript. Drawn on the page that he was currently examining was a picture of two vampiric creatures. One with a symbol on its forehead standing tall and strong while the other lie weakly on the ground. The image also depicted some type of energy flowing between them. Giles looked to the text on the next page.

"On the night of the crescent moon," He read aloud again "the first part of the solstice, it will come." Giles again looked up in thought. "Of course." The Brit said in comprehension as he double-checked the pagan calendar that was also on the table. "That's tonight."

XXX

So far, with the exception of the occasional rat Xander hadn't really seen any signs of life in the dank tunnels running beneath his hometown. Still he kept his guard up. These tunnels weren't exactly the best place to be if he had to fight. They were cramped which would limit his movement and they were also cluttered with garbage and other junk that could trip him up if he needed to run. Not to mention the layout for the tunnel system was confusing as hell. Every other passage looked identical and if one weren't careful it would be real easy to get turned around in the underground maze.

The slayer sighed heavily and pushed those dark thoughts aside as he pressed on. "Being a Donnie Downer is not going to help Willow." Xander muttered to himself.

As the slayer rounded the next corner his senses detected something moving in the tunnels behind him. And whatever it was, it was a lot bigger than a rat. Flattening himself against a wall Xander readied for an attack. It was closer now and Xan could make out the distinct sound of footsteps. Deciding that his target was close enough Xander jumped out of his hiding spot with stake in hand to confront them.

"Ahh!" Buffy screamed almost falling over in fright from the slayer's sudden appearance. "Xander don't scare me like that!" she shouted smacking him on the arm.

"What are you doing down here?" Xander asked exasperatedly.

"I followed you." Buffy replied vehemently "I couldn't just sit around and do nothing."

"Well thanks and all but I almost turned you into a Buffy ca-bob just now!" the slayer said crossly holding up his stake for emphasis. "You need to get out of here, like yesterday."

"I know how to spot a vampire. Maybe if I hadn't left Willow alone last night she might not of been taken." Buffy's eyes became steely with determination. "I'm just as responsible for this mess as you think you are and I'm going to help whether you like it or not buster."

The girl had a resolve face that rivaled Willow's. Xander knew that he wasn't going to be able to talk her into leaving on her own. So he did the only thing he could do, he relented. "Fine, you can come with, but you stay behind me and you do as I say. Capiche?" She nodded in agreement of his terms. He sighed letting his tension go. "Let's go then." With that the pair of teens continued further into the dark underground.

XXX

Jesse had been amazed at the info he was finding regarding his hometown. According to the statistics he had dug up on the net the little hamlet of Sunnydale had a mortality rate that made big cities like Detroit and Washington D.C. look like Mayberry in comparison. Also it seemed that there was a huge epidemic of gangs using PCP in Sunnydale. At least that's what the local PD claimed as the official reason for all the bad stuff that happened. Jes had lived in this little southern California town his whole life and he couldn't remember ever seeing roving gangs hopped up on drugs terrorizing the citizens. What all this basically boiled down to was that everything he thought he knew about his home was a lie.

"No!" Cordelia shouted mournfully breaking Jesse's concentration. He glanced over his shoulder to see her sitting at one of the other terminals staring despairingly at the screen before her. "It's supposed to find the syntax and match it. Or wait…"

Jesse suppressed a chuckle. The girl had no idea what she was talking about. Why she was even taking this class was beyond him. Cordy had never struck him as a computer person. That wasn't to say that she was stupid, far from it actually. Jes knew for a fact that Cordelia was probably one of the more intelligent people in this school. He had taken a peak at her test scores once. The problem was that she was so concerned with keeping up appearances with the in-crowd that she dumbed herself down and acted like a complete bitch.

She had such potential. That was one of the reasons why he was kinda hung up on her. Jesse knew she could be a better person if she wanted to be. All Cordy had to learn was that status wasn't everything and not everyone you meet cares about it.

"Are we going to the Bronze tonight?" Harmony Kendall (AKA Cordy's number one hanger on) suddenly asked the brunette. She was seated at the next computer over to Cordelia's left. In Jesse's opinion, girls like Harmony were the main reason why the dumb blonde stereotype refused to go away.

"No, we're going to the other cool place in Sunnydale." Cordelia replied condescendingly. Harmony began to look very confused which caused Cordy to roll her eyes. "Of course we're going to the Bronze!" she clarified for the empty headed girl. "Thursday night, no cover? But you should have been there last night."

"What happened?" Harmony asked excitedly.

"I ran into Xander and could he be any weirder?" The self-proclaimed queen of Sunnydale High asked dramatically. "He attacked me! Can you believe it?" Jesse felt his own eyes rolling in annoyance. It was fine when Cordelia slammed him but it was something else entirely when she went after his friends.

"Uh, I think we did this part wrong." Harmony said as she stared blankly at her computer screen.

"Why do we have to devise these programs?" Cordy asked irritably. "Isn't that what nerds are for?" Harmony nodded in agreement. Then Cordelia leaned in closer to the girl. "What did he do?" she whispered conspiratorially nodding in Jesse's direction. Harmony turned in her seat and tried to look covertly at his screen. However in the end she couldn't make heads or tails of the search program he was running.

"Um, he's doing something else." The idiot blonde told her friend all the while smiling like the little sycophant she was.

Of course he was doing something else, Jesse thought with a snicker. The computer science teacher, Mr. Tucker, tended to let him do whatever he wanted simply because the educator couldn't understand even half of what Jes was up to most of the time. The man was a technological dinosaur who thought that DOS was still cutting edge. Word was though that he was going to be retiring at the end of the semester and that they were going to be getting a new computer teacher. A Miss Colander or was it Calendar? Well her name was something like that anyway.

"Ok and then "pattern run," right?" Cordelia asked looking for confirmation from Harmony. "Or…"go to end." Yeah that's it."

"Maybe." Harmony said sounding even more confused.

"So anyway, I come out of the bathroom and he comes running at me," Cordy was back on the incident with Xander again and becoming more dramatic with every word "with a stick shouting. "I'm gonna kill you!" I swear!"

Now she was starting to tick Jesse off. He wasn't present for the altercation she was relaying to Harmony but he seriously doubted that it happened the way the self-proclaimed queen of SHS was describing it.

"Who?" The longhaired burnout boy seated on Cordy's other side asked.

"Xander Harris."

"I saw him talking with the new girl, Buffy, yesterday morning." Harmony added. "You know what the rumors say about her."

"What's her deal?" Burnout boy asked clearly not having heard the gossip.

"She got booted from her old school." Harmony began.

"Because apparently she's a total pyro." Cordelia finished. "If you ask me, she and Harris deserve each other. Psychos!"

Okay, that was it. Jesse had to do something. He just wasn't sure what that something would be. He didn't like Cordelia badmouthing Xander but he could tolerate it. Xan and Cordy had been feuding since kindergarten so that was nothing new. But slamming Buffy when she didn't even really know anything about her, now that just wasn't cool.

While Queen C and her court continued to dish about his friends, Jesse finished his search and sent what he had gathered to the printer. The bell for the end of class would be ringing soon and Giles needed to see what he had found.

"Okay," Harmony said sounding relieved "I think the program's done."

"Finally the nightmare ends!" was Cordelia's triumphant reply. "Okay, so how do we save it?"

It was at that moment that Jesse had a brilliant idea. He liked Cordy. He really did, but sometimes she needed to be put in her place. "Try deliver." Jes told them with a sly smile as he finished gathering his papers from the printer.

"Deliver? Where's that?" Cordy asked thoughtfully as she scanned her keyboard. "Oh." She said as she spied a key marked "Del." Without any hesitation she pressed the button. A moment later her eyes went wide with surprise as all of her hard work vanished from the screen with only an electronic beep to mark it's passing. She shot an angry glare in Jesse's direction just as the bell rang. He just winked at her smugly and stepped out the door with his research in hand.

XXX

"So what are the four most essential pieces of equipment for vamp slayage?" Xander asked quizzing Buffy as the two teens continued to make their way through the dark tunnels beneath Sunnydale.

"Stake, cross and holy water. That's three." She answered and then asked uncertainly "But what's the fourth?"

"Twinkies. Arguably the most vital of all the essentials." Xander stated with mock seriousness. "One does not slay on an empty stomach Buffster."

Buffy giggled. "I'll have to remember that for future reference."

"Okay, next question." The slayer said continuing with the impromptu quiz. Buffy didn't mind that Xander felt the need to test her. He was just making sure that she wasn't going to be a liability and Miss Summers was determined to prove that she wouldn't be. "Did you happen to bring any of those things with you?" He asked.

Buffy reached into her jacket with a confident smile. "Never leave home without it." She said as she produced an intricately carved wooden cross from her pocket. "Some people pack pepper-spray for self-defense. I pack a crucifix."

"Very good." Xander said thoroughly impressed. "Alright, last question on the Harris standardized test for vampire slaying. List the most effective ways for killing a vampire?"

"Stake through the heart of course, sunlight and fire." Buffy replied counting them off on her fingers. "Pretty much anything you've seen in the movies will get the job done."

"Bravo Buffy," Xander praised "but don't forget about beheading. That makes 'em dusty real fast."

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that one." She said becoming pensive. "I saw Pike do a beheading once."

"Yeah, how did that go?" Xander asked curiously.

"Not that great," Buffy said with a sigh "it was kind of an ordeal. You see, Pike was pinned down by this guy that played left tackle for varsity. Well, at least he did before he was a vampire. Anyway the guy had this…"

Suddenly Xander was hit with a vision of himself, at least he thought it was himself, grappling with a rather large vampire in a letterman's jacket.

"…Really thick neck and all Pike had was a little X-Acto knife." Xander finished for her as the vision cleared leaving him with a peculiar expression forming on his face.

"Good call." the ex-cheerleader said looking confused. "Did I already tell you this story?"

"No, but I remember it."

"Huh?" was Buffy's oh so eloquent reply.

"I remember it like it happened to me." Xander clarified.

"Okay, that's kinda wiggy." Buffy said uncertainly. "Any idea how that's possible?"

"Giles told me once that when a slayer dies all of his memories and all the memories of every other slayer that came before him are subconsciously passed to the next guy in line." Xander sighed and scratched his head in thought. "Come to think of it that could explain all the feelings of déjà vu I've been having concerning you."

"You've been déjà vu-ing me?" Buffy asked surprised then blushed. "Wow, that sounded dirty."

Xander laughed "That's alright Buff, I know what you meant." Then the slayer shrugged "It's just that when I first saw you yesterday I had this feeling like I should already know you. And it's been getting stronger the more I'm around you. I think it's like leftovers from the guy before me."

"So because Pike knew me, you do to?" Buffy questioned uncertainly. "Is that what you're trying to say?"

"I guess, maybe, I don't know. It's complicated. How about we ask Giles what it all means later?" Xander offered.

"Fine with me." Buffy agreed.

"Hey, did you used to be a cheerleader?" The slayer suddenly asked out of the blue.

"Yeah, why?"

"No reason." Xander said smirking as he got a flash of memory featuring Buffy wearing the standard skimpy cheerleader uniform while jumping around and shaking her pompoms so to speak.

Buffy noticed Xander's smirk and smacked his arm. "Slayer or not I will find a way to hurt you." The petite blonde promised as the pair continued cautiously down the dark tunnel.

XXX

Giles was still cross-referencing when Jesse entered the library with what he had found. "Xander?" The older man questioned looking up hopefully when he heard the door open.

"Sorry, just me." Jesse answered as he walked into the room. "I guess that means you haven't heard from him yet?"

"Unfortunately, no." Giles shook his head worriedly.

"Well I'm sure that they are just fine." Jesse said reassuringly.

"They?" the Brit asked quirking an eyebrow.

"Uh, did I say "they"?" Jes desperately tried to wipe the _'deer caught in headlights'_ look off his face when he realized his slip. "I meant to say, um, he's just fine. Yeah that's it."

"Jesse," Giles gave the teen the serious over the glasses stare "what aren't you telling me?"

Jesse crumbled like a house of cards under the watcher's glare. "Buffy went to follow Xander, I told her that it was a bad idea, but she left anyway, and I'm really, really sorry." Jesse babbled so fast that Giles almost couldn't understand him.

"Oh dear Lord." Giles said incredulously. He took his glasses off and began to polish them furiously. "Did you at least try to stop her?"

"Um, not really." Was Jesse's shameful reply. "But to be honest I don't think I could have. She was determined to go."

"Why would Buffy do something so reckless?" the librarian asked in frustration.

"She just wanted to help." The teen answered lamely. Giles stopped polishing his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed in resignation.

"Well, I suppose there is nothing that we can do at the moment." Then the older man pointed to the stack of papers in Jesse's hand. "What did you find?"

"Oh yeah." Jesse said stepping forward having almost forgotten about his research. "I found all kinds of stuff going back more than two hundred years but I limited the search to the last century for the most part. I bet there's more but this seemed to be closer to the kind of info you asked for." The teen told Giles as he handed over the papers.

Giles scanned through the pages Jesse gave him. There was a lot about the rather odd history of the town. Some of which the watcher already knew about and some that he didn't. What really caught his attention though was a rash of murders that happened in the area some sixty years ago, just before a major earthquake devastated the area. The time frame just happened to correspond with something else the watcher had been referencing. Xander had told him that the vampires from last night's attack had mentioned a being called the Master and Giles had thought it prudent to look up supernatural entities that went by that title. It just so happened that very powerful vampire called the Master arrived in this area about the same time as the last spree of murders and hadn't been heard from since. It was possible that this particular being was connected with recent events.

"This is very good Jesse." The older man praised as he started to understand more of the puzzle. "In fact this is all starting to come together. I rather wish it weren't though." Giles finished apprehensively. This could all go very badly if they weren't careful.

XXX

"I think we're getting close to where we're going." Xander told Buffy as the pair of high school students turned down yet another tunnel.

"How can you tell?" Buffy asked looking around for some type landmark that would have identified their location in the tunnel system to Xander. It all looked exactly the same to her.

"No more rats." The slayer said in an ominous tone pointing out the sudden lack of rodents under foot. If even the rats weren't willing to stick around then this was definitely not a place for humans.

"I never thought that there being zero rats around would translate into a bad thing." Buffy commented quietly.

"Shush." Xan said stopping suddenly. He cocked his head to the side as if listening for something. "This way, come on." The slayer motioned for Buffy to follow. Picking up the pace the pair rounded yet another corner and came face to face with what had gotten Xander's attention. Lying on the dirty floor in the fetal position and chained to the wall was a whimpering Willow. The slayer was at the redhead's side in an instant.

"Get away!" she screamed curling up even tighter.

"Will, it's me." Xander said in a soothing voice trying to calm her down. "You're safe now."

"Xander?" Willow asked in disbelief looking up with tear streaked eyes. Almost instantly the slayer had his arms full of hysterical redhead. "I didn't think you'd come." Willow cried her voice being muffled by Xander's shirt.

"Seriously?" Xan asked with mock incredulity as he wiped her tears away. "No power on this Earth bestest bud o mine, could have kept me away."

"I really hate to be the one to end this very Kodak-y moment," Buffy said reasserting her presence to her friends "but we need to get out of here pronto."

"Buffy's right." Xander let go of Willow and knelt down to look at the manacle around her ankle. Yet another stupid lock. This was turning into a regular running gag today. After a quick examination Xander decided he could break it. However the noise he'd make doing so would probably alert the locals. Then again that was probably the point. The second he saw Willow chained to the wall Xander knew this was a trap. '_Well, nothing for it.'_ The slayer thought picking up a nearby pipe.

"Xander what are you doing?" Willow asked sounding confused.

"Nothing to worry about Willow." Buffy said reassuringly "This year's Xander model comes with extras."

"Don't move." Xan ordered and then swung the pipe down onto the manacle's clasp. The powerful blow shattered the lock but also as predicted made quite a racket.

"Okay, someone definitely heard that." Buffy stated. Moments later the sound of many footsteps and animalistic growls could be heard coming their way.

"No kidding." Xander replied as he quickly started ushering both girls in the direction he and Buffy had come in through and away from the vamps.

"They knew you would come." Willow said shakily as they hurried through the labyrinth of tunnels trying to escape. "They said that I was the bait."

"Wonderful." Xander commented though he had guessed as much. They rounded another corner and stopped dead in their tracks. At the far end of the passage he could see several pairs of glowing eyes that belonged to the undead and they were approaching rapidly. "Okay, not going that way."

"Nononono!" the redhead was starting to panic and Xander couldn't blame her. This was a bad situation.

"Is there another way out?" Buffy asked frantically.

"This way!" Willow shouted grabbing both Xander and Buffy by the hand and dragged them along. "They brought me through here earlier. I think it leads up." A few frenzied moments later Will lead them into a chamber with a heavy steel door. Unfortunately it turned out to be a dead end.

"I'm just spit-balling here, but I don't think this is the way out." Xander said anxiously.

"What are we gonna do?" asked a very worried Buffy. Both she and Xander were looking out the door and back the way they had come. They could tell that their pursuers were not far behind.

"I've got an idea," Willow said causing the slayer and former cheerleader to look back at her and gasp at what they saw "you can die." Willow Rosenberg was now a vampire. Her once beautiful face marred by the demon within.

Xander couldn't move, he could barely even think his shock was so great. He had failed his friend utterly. "Willow, I'm so sorry." His voice was an agonized whisper.

"Don't feel sorry for me Xander." The thing that wore Willow's face said as she glided up to the slayer. "I am so much more now then I was before." Her twisted smile widened when Xander didn't step back. "You know, you don't have to die here. You and I could have the rest of eternity to play together." Her glowing yellow eyes were almost hypnotic as she reached up and caressed his face. "Wouldn't that be fun Xander?"

"Back off!" Buffy shouted stepping up and shoving her cross into the newly turned bloodsucker's face. Vamp-Willow instantly retreated away from the holy object with a snarl. This action also had the added benefit of snapping Xan out of his stupor.

Survival instincts finally kicked in as the slayer grabbed Vamp-Willow by the shirt and flung her out the entryway and into the approaching horde of undead, knocking many of them to the ground in the process. Then he and Buffy worked together to close the reinforced steel door. It wasn't easy, even with all his considerable strength being exerted against it the thing didn't want to budge. They almost had it sealed when the first vamp reached them, sticking it's clawed hand through the gap in the door stopping them from closing it. Xan grabbed the cross out of Buffy's hand and pressed it into the vampire's arm. The unpleasant smell of seared flesh suddenly permeated the area. The undead minion quickly retracted its burned appendage allowing Buffy to latch the door.

"We need to find a way out of here." Buffy said slumping against the door as the vamps started to beat on it. From the sound of things it wasn't going to hold for long.

"There is no out of here." Xander answered next to her sounding defeated. Buffy refused to believe that though. Looking around she spotted a ventilation grate in the ceiling.

"Look," the blonde pointed to what she had found "what about that vent?" Xander nodded in agreement his need to survive momentarily overshadowing his despair at losing one of his oldest friends. Jumping up onto some crates piled beneath the vent Xan went to work on prying it open. It was a torturously slow process but the rusty grate finally started to give way and open. Which was none too soon as the door keeping the vampires out began to buckle under their assault. One corner was starting to warp and fold over as a vamp pushed himself through trying to reach the latch.

"Up you go." Xander effortlessly lifted Buffy into ventilation duct then climbed in himself just as the vamps breached the room.

The two high school students crawled quickly through the pitch-black ducts, the enemy hot on their heels spurring them to move faster. Soon the duct ended in a shaft with a ladder that went straight up to the surface.

"Climb." Xander ordered. The Summers girl didn't need to be told twice as she moved up the rungs as fast as possible. When she reached the top Buffy shoved the shaft's manhole cover aside and hauled herself out of the hole, Xander only a few seconds behind her. She had never been so glad to see the sun. The slayer was almost clear of the shaft's opening himself when a pale hand latched onto his lower leg, attempting to drag him back down.

"Buffy, help me pull!" Xan shouted. Buffy wrapped her arms around Xander and aided him in this deadlier version of tug-of-war. Soon the vampire lost ground as its hand was pulled into the light of day. When it started to smoke the vamp let go with an angry hiss causing the two teens to overbalance and fall over. Xander twisted mid-fall hitting the ground first and cushioning the impact for Buffy.

"Let's not do that again…ever." Buffy said with sigh of relief. Xander just silently nodded in agreement as the two of them lay there on the ground happy to still be alive.

XXX

"You let him escape when I should be drinking his heart's blood right now!" The Master raged at his gathered minions. "Careless."

"Well, I played my part perfectly." Willow said stepping out from the crowd. "I had the slayer practically eating out of my hand. If that blonde bitch hadn't been there and if Collin here," she smirked spitefully at the vampire responsible for orchestrating the ambush, "hadn't taken his sweet time closing the trap, dear Xander would be ours right now."

The Master smiled at the newest childe to join his little family. This one showed initiative in making sure the blame for the failure landed squarely on poor Collin. She was an intelligent and vicious little thing. He liked her already.

"My dear, I'm sure you did your part as best you could." He said taking her hand in an almost fatherly way. "As for the rest of you though, you are all weak! It has been too long since any of you have faced a slayer."

"Master, we had him trapped." Collin said trying to save himself.

"Oh… are you going to make excuses now Collin?" the Master asked cruelly. The lesser vampire wisely chose to keep his mouth shut after that. Pleas for mercy weren't going to help him now. Their leader had none to give to those who failed him.

"Well, no matter." The Master shook his head in a dismissive manner. "He will not stop the Harvest. Just means there'll be someone worth killing when I reach the surface." He looked to Darien who was standing off to the side of the room. "Is Luke ready?"

"He's waiting." The blonde vampire answered with a devilish smile.

"It's time, bring him to me." With that everyone scattered to make preparations for the ritual. Collin went to leave as well feeling a wave of relief. He might make it out of this unscathed.

"Oh Collin?" The Master called preventing the younger vampire's escape. Reluctantly Collin turned to face his Sire. He should have known better than to hope he would get away clean. "You failed me." The Master spoke as if he were talking to a small child. "Say you're sorry."

"I'm sorry." Collin apologized sincerely. He truly was sorry, but not for failing to kill the slayer. No, what he was really sorry for was allowing that fledgling bitch to lay sole responsibility for the screw-up on him.

"See." the Master said with a forgiving smile that didn't reach his eyes. "That wasn't so hard." Collin however did not feel relieved. "One more thing…" the ancient vampire was grinning with true delight now. His hand shot forward swiftly, clawed index finger extended. Then there was a squishing sound that seemed to echo in the enclosed space of the cave. "You seem to have something in your eye."

To his credit Collin managed not to scream…too much.

XXX

Jesse and Giles were still in the library waiting for Xander and Buffy to return, hopefully with Willow in tow. In the mean time however they had come up with a pretty solid theory about what was going on. The pair had pulled out a dry erase board and sketched out their ideas upon it. What came together seemed to be feasible. Jesse's research had been incredibly thorough and had allowed Giles to connect the dots quite nicely. The boy would make a fine watcher someday if he chose to follow that path.

"Giles, what exactly are vampires anyway?" Jesse suddenly asked from his seat across from the older man. "When you were telling me what was what earlier this morning you never really went into detail about them."

The librarian looked at the young man across from him curiously as he mentally went over their discussion from this morning when the other two teenagers had still been present. He soon came to the conclusion that the young man was right, he hadn't explained exactly what a vampire was. Well, that was easily remedied.

"Well Jesse, vampires are very much like what popular culture has made them out to be." Giles began. "Most of what you know from movies and books is very true. They subsist on the blood of the living. Daylight, fire, and objects of a holy significance are repellant to them. And they can be killed by a stake through the heart."

"Okay, so where did they come from then?" Jesse asked.

"Ah, now that is a far more interesting question." Giles said with a smile appreciating how sharp the young man before him was. "According to legend, just before the last true demon left this plain of existence he fed on a human and mixed their blood together. That human became infected by the demon's soul. In essence he became a human form possessed." Jesse was on the edge of his seat now. "Over time he bit another and they bit another, feeding on some and mixing blood with others to make more of their kind." The Brit. sighed as he finished his story. "Now they wait for the animals to die out and for the Old Ones to return."

"Whoa." Jesse said astounded. "That's heavy."

"Indeed."

"So, besides vampires, what else goes bump in the night?" Jesse asked eager to learn more.

"Well," Giles began, enjoying Jesse's enthusiasm for the subject "there are…" It was at that moment though that the doors to the library swung open admitting Xander and Buffy. The watcher noticed the stormy looks on both their faces and the distinct lack of a redhead in their company. From those signs the librarian deduced that things had not gone well on their end.

"She's dead, isn't she?" Jesse asked his voice sounding hollow and broken. Apparently he had noticed Willow's absence as well.

Buffy shook her head negative but her expression didn't lighten. "Worse, I'm sorry Jesse." She put a comforting hand on his shoulder. "We were too late and they were waiting for us."

All the blood drained away from Jesse's face as he realized what could be worse than dying where vampires were concerned. "Well, at least you guys are okay."

Right then Xander savagely kicked an innocent library cart, sending it careening into the far wall with a sizable dent in its side. Giles didn't have it in him to admonish the young man over his lack of self-control.

"I have decided that I really don't like vampires." Xander's voice trembled with rage. "Before, it was just me doing my job but now…" The slayer took a deep breath but his anger refused to abate. "Now, I'm gonna take it to 'em _"Charles Bronson"_ style."

"So Giles, did you and Jesse find anything that might make our day any worse?" Buffy asked trying to change the subject slightly.

Giles stood up and sighed. "How about the end of the world?"

"You're a glass is half empty kinda guy aren't you G-man?" The slayer joked but his voice lacked any of its usual humor.

XXX

The Master stood in the middle of the chamber as his followers finished lighting the candles for the ritual. Luke entered a few moments later and knelt before his sire. The Master offered his hand to his most loyal disciple. Then Luke bit into his leader's wrist and drank.

"My blood is your blood." The Master intoned pulling his wrist away. "My soul is your soul."

"My body is your instrument." Luke pledged.

"On this most hallowed night…" The ancient vampire began as he started to mark Luke's forehead with blood. "We are as one. Luke is the vessel." The Master told all those who had gathered for the ritual. "Every soul he takes will feed me and their souls will give me the strength to free myself." The Master continued to paint a tri-pointed symbol on Luke. "Tonight I shall walk the Earth and the Stars themselves will hide!"

Darien smiled evilly at the spectacle taking place. Willow just looked bored and thought the whole thing to be a little over dramatic.

XXX

"This is what we know." Giles started as he paced around the library. "Some sixty years ago a very old, very powerful vampire came to this shore and not just to feed."

"He came 'cause this little town of ours is sitting on top of a mystical thingamajig." Xander guessed.

The watcher nodded an affirmative "Yes, the Spanish that first settled the area referred to it as _'Boca Del Inferno'_ or roughly translated _'Hellmouth'_." The older man paused for a moment to collect his thoughts before continuing. "It's sort of a portal between this reality and the next. This vampire, the Master, hoped to open it."

"Bring the old demons back?" Buffy asked with an eyebrow raised.

"End of the world." Xander concluded from his part of the room.

"But it got messed up!" Jesse interjected excitedly. "There was this huge earthquake that swallowed half the town. I'll give you three guesses who got taken along for the ride and the first two don't count."

"You see," Giles said stepping back into the discussion "opening dimensional doorways is a tricky business. It would seem that the Master got himself stuck, like a cork in a bottle."

"And this Harvest thing is his get out of jail free card." Xander presumed.

"Exactly." Giles confirmed. "It comes once in a century on this night. A master vampire can draw power from one of his minions while it feeds." Giles then walked over to the dry erase board he and Jesse had set up earlier. "Presumably, he can draw enough power to break free and open the portal." The watcher pulled the cap off a dry erase marker and began to sketch a tri-pointed symbol on the board. "The minion is called the vessel and he bears this symbol." Giles said as he finished the diagram.

"So, I put a stake to anyone sporting that symbol and the Harvest goes down the drain." Xander said coming over to the board to get a better look at the mark.

"That is an oversimplification but yes." Giles agreed.

"Cool," Buffy added "any idea where this little bloodbath is going down?"

"There are a few possibilities." The watcher told them sounding unsure.

"It'll be the Bronze." The slayer said with certainty.

"Are you positive on that Xan-man?" Jesse asked.

Xander nodded "To them the place is basically like an all you can eat buffet. Trust me that's where they're going to be."

"Then we should get there as well." Giles said grabbing his jacket. "The sun will be down before long."

"My house is on the way." Buffy said as they all made for the library exit. "I need to stop and pick up some stuff first."

"Like what?" Xander questioned looking at her like she was crazy. They were talking about possible Armageddon here. Time was most definitely a factor.

The LA native just winked at him "Why, the essentials of course."

'_Yep,'_ Xander thought cracking a real smile in spite of the day's events _'this girl's a keeper.'_

XXX

A short time later.

Buffy Summers was pretty sure that she had managed to sneak into the house without her mother noticing. She took this opportunity to quickly change clothes; after all she had been wearing the same thing since last night. Now that she was changed it was time to get down to business. The others were waiting for her outside while she gathered the supplies.

Buffy had just gone over to her closet and pulled out a jacket when her mother walked in. "Buffy?" the elder Summers called.

"Mom, hi." The blonde girl greeted as normally as she could.

"You're going out?" Joyce asked crossing her arms and glancing at the jacket in her daughter's hands.

"Yeah, I have to."

"I didn't hear you come in last night."

"I was really quiet." Buffy said lying through teeth. It wasn't like she could tell her mom where she had really been last night.

"It's happening again isn't it?" Joyce sighed in frustration somehow sensing the lie anyway. "I got a call from your new principal, he said you missed some classes today."

"I was running an errand." Buffy explained though she could tell her Mom still didn't believe a word.

"We haven't even finished unpacking yet and I'm already getting calls from the principal." This was not going well in Buffy's opinion.

"Mom, I promise it's not going to be like before, but I have to go." The teen pleaded.

"No." Joyce replied firmly.

"Mom!" Buffy shouted angrily.

"The tapes all say I should get used to saying it." Joyce shook her head and took a deep breath. "No."

"This is really, really important!" Buffy shouted again trying to make her see.

"I know." Joyce answered in an understanding tone. "If you don't go out tonight it'll be the end of the world." Buffy couldn't help but think that in this instance that might actually be true. Xander was going to need all the help he could get tonight. "Everything is life or death when you're a sixteen year-old girl."

"Look, I don't have time to talk about it…"

"Buffy, you've got all the time in the world." Her mother said cutting her off. "You're not going anywhere." Joyce took another deep breath and then continued in her most reasonable tone of voice. "Now if you want to stay up here and sulk, I won't hold it against you. But if you want to come down I'll make us some dinner." With one last look that said there would be no further arguments on the subject, Joyce left the room.

Buffy just sighed heavily.

"You're mom's pretty cool." Xander's voice said coming from the window. Buffy turned suddenly to see the slayer perched on her windowsill. His damn slayer stealth had allowed him to sneak up on her.

"What are you doing up here?" Buffy asked in an irritated whisper afraid her mother would hear.

"I came to see what the holdup was." Xander answered in his normal voice. "Don't worry your mom's already down stairs. Unless she's part bat she shouldn't hear us."

"How can you tell where she is?" Buffy asked still whispering. "Last time I checked slayers didn't have X-ray vision." In answer to her question Xander just pointed to his own ears. Then Buffy remembered that slayers could hear a whole lot better than the average person.

"Oh, yeah." She said in her normal voice. "Wait, so you heard everything she just said and you still think my mom is cool?"

"She cares, that's pretty cool." He told her getting up from the window and coming into the room. "It's more than my parents ever did."

"Oh." Buffy didn't really know what Xander's family situation was. From the sound of that sentence it didn't sound like he had it too good. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be." He told her smiling sincerely if just a little sadly. "I live with my uncle Rory now. He's a pretty awesome guy. He's been reading a lot of those parenting self-help books too since I moved in." Xander chuckled a little. "Maybe he and your mom should get together and compare notes." Buffy laughed a little at that too. Then Xander sobered up "So, you said something about the essentials?"

"Right." Buffy said going back over to her closet. A few seconds later she pulled out a large trunk and an empty black duffel bag. Opening the trunk revealed an assortment of girly item such as stuffed animals, journals, cheer trophies and colorful seashells just to name a few.

"Um, Buffy?" Xander gave her a questioning look. "Unless we're doing battle with the characters from Hello Kitty I don't think this stuff is going to help." The girl rolled her eyes in annoyance and pulled the top tray out revealing that the trunk had a false bottom. Beneath was a small arsenal of vampire hunting equipment including stakes, bottles of holy water and crosses. Basically, all the essentials as laid down by Xander Harris, minus the Twinkies. Buffy hadn't had a chance to stock those yet. "Ooh, shiny." Xander said in approval with a big grin.

"Shiny?" Buffy asked quirking an eyebrow.

"Not feeling it, uh?" Then the slayer shrugged "Maybe it'll catch on in the future?"

"The far future." Buffy joked. "Anyway, this is everything I've got. When I moved here I hoped I'd never see a vamp again but like a good Girl Scout, I'm always prepared."

"Always be prepared, is the Boy Scout's motto Buffster." Xander pointed out.

"Whatever, just load up."

They quickly filled the duffel bag with just about everything in the trunk. When they were done there were only two items left and Xander was staring at them intently. One was a distinctive stake carved from what looked to be teak and the other was a beat up brown leather jacket. The slayer knew without a doubt that both items had belonged to the late Oliver Pike.

A memory assaulted Xander's mind as he picked up the jacket. It was more vivid than any he had experienced before. It felt completely real and he was having trouble keeping it straight that this had actually happened to someone else and not to him.

Buffy was there, wearing a beautiful white evening dress. "I wanted you to see me in it." she told him/Pike indicating the dress. "I don't think we'll have much of a chance to dance tonight considering Lothos' plans for homecoming." She looked up at him/Pike, there was fear in her eyes. "I don't want you to die."

He/Pike put his hands on her shoulders. "I'm not gonna die Summers." Pike/he said with a reassuring smile. "I'm not that easy to get rid of."

"How do you know?" She asked close to tears. He/Pike sighed and took off the jacket and put it over Buffy's shoulders. She gazed at Pike/him questioningly.

"You've got my jacket and I'm gonna want it back." He/Pike told her. "It's got my favorite stake in the pocket. So you know I'll be coming back for it for sure."

Buffy smiled at him/Pike "I've got something else you'll want to come back for too."

"Yeah, what's that?" Pike/he asked genuinely curious.

"This." Buffy leaned forward on her toes and kissed Pike/him. Immediately he/Pike kissed her back passionately. Too soon though the need for oxygen drove them apart.

"Okay, I'm definitely not going to die now." He/Pike told her. It was funny, until that moment Pike/he hadn't realized how important this little cheerleader had become to him/Pike. "When this is all over you and I are gonna have plenty of time together to figure stuff out. I promise."

"I'm gonna hold you to that Oliver Pike." Buffy said moving in for another kiss.

Then it was over and Xander was himself again but the feelings had not gone away.

"Are you okay?" Buffy asked looking concerned. "Did you get another flash just now?"

He looked at her and the urge to kiss her was almost overwhelming. Somehow though, Xander kept it together, barely. "Yeah, I got another flash and it was a doosey. But I'm okay now Sum… uh, I mean, Buff." He told her catching himself. Great, now he wasn't just getting Pike's memories but his feelings and mannerisms too.

"I guess certain stuff will trigger a memory." Buffy said taking the jacket. "This was Pike's. He gave it to me to hold onto. He said he would come back for it but he never did."

"I know." Xan told her remembering when Pike had given it to her and also how good her lips felt when she… _'Stop it!'_ He ordered his brain firmly. Those were not his thoughts. They belonged to someone else and he would not act on them.

"Try it on." Buffy said handing the jacket back to him. "I think he would have wanted it to go to the next slayer."

Xander now fully in control of himself again did as she asked. The jacket fit perfectly and it just felt right. "How do I look?" He asked.

"Like a slayer." Buffy told him sticking the teak stake in his pocket. "Now lets get a move on mister. The world's not going to save itself."

XXX

The Bronze was, as usual, jumping with activity. The local youth had come out in droves this Thursday night. The manager was pretty sure this was the biggest crowd they had had for quite a while. Everywhere one looked something was going on. Teens were dancing, some were talking and Cordelia Chase was once again holding court.

"Senior boys are the only way to go." She told her crew of sycophants. "The guys from our grade? Forget about it. They're children, you know?" All the gathered girls just nodded mindlessly. "Like Jesse McNally." Cordy pointed out as an example. Never mind that he had impressed her a little today when he tricked her into deleting her work for computer class. Who knew that the little geek had a devious streak in him? Though she wasn't about to tell her friends that he had gotten one over on her.

"Did you see him last night following me around like a little puppy dog?" The other girls laughed appropriately at Cordelia's joke. "You just want to put him to sleep. But senior boys?" Cordy groaned a little in appreciation. "They have mystery. They have…" Ms. Chase paused in consideration. "What's the word I'm searching for?" she asked rhetorically. Then her face lit up as it came to her "Cars." Again the airheads laughed at their leader's wit.

"I am just not the type to settle, you know?" Cordelia continued to do what she did best which was talk about things that don't really matter and have her flock of sheep hang off of every word. "It's like when I go shopping. I have to have the most expensive thing. Not because it's the most expensive but because it costs more." She finished trying to sound sage.

"Well you know…" said a girl who's name wasn't important enough to remember but Cordelia shut her down before she could utter another word.

"Hello, Miss Motormouth, Can I get a sentence finished?" Right then the DJ stared a new song over the sound system and Cordy's face lit up in recognition. "Oh I love this song! Come on!" She motioned for her crew to follow her down to the dance floor. A few moments later Cordy and her posse were moving along to the fast beats of the song on the floor.

In the shadows near the bar, the demon that had once been Willow Rosenberg watched the dancing brunette with a malicious smirk. This was going to be fun.

Back on the dance floor the fast song had just ended and a slow one had begun. Cordy quickly snagged herself a drool worthy senior boy to dance with. Things were going good until someone said "Cutting in." and rudely shoved Cordelia aside snatching her partner.

"Hey." The rich girl shouted at the bimbo that thought she could push Cordelia Chase around. So just imagine her surprise when it was Wittle Willow Rosenberg that turned around to answer her challenge. If she hadn't seen her face Cordelia wouldn't have recognized her. Willow had gone with the naughty catholic schoolgirl look, wearing a plaid mini skirt, knee high socks and a white button down that she had knotted showing off her midriff. Also there was just something in her eyes that gave Cordy some pause.

"Back off Whoredelia," the redhead said while grinding her rear into the boy she had stolen "I'm taking this one for a test drive." Then she turned around and led the all to willing teenage male elsewhere on the dance floor. Cordy couldn't even speak she was so shocked. When had Willow grown a spine?

XXX

Outside the Bronze Luke, Darien and several of the Master's most trusted minions approached the club's entrance. At first the bouncer didn't look up as the group went to enter the building.

"Hey, I need to see some ID first." He shouted trying to stop them but the undead just brushed past him. "I said I need…" Luke stopped him with a challenging look and the man backed down.

"Get him inside." He told one of the minions who promptly grabbed the bouncer and hauled him into the club.

Once they were in the group of vampire's split up. One went to cover the back exit, another stayed at the front locking the door, most went to do crowd control and one went to the power box and cut the lights. The club was plunged into darkness and though everyone was surprised but no one panicked…yet.

Luke mounted the stage and began to address the club goers. "Ladies and Gentlemen, there is no cause for alarm." He assured. Then an overhead spot came on illuminating his disfigured face. There were several screams and frightened shouts when this happened. "Well actually there is cause for alarm. It just won't do any good." Luke clarified smiling sadistically. The crowd backed away from the stage in terror.

Down on the dance floor Cordelia Chase looked up at the stage in confusion. "There isn't supposed to be a band tonight." She said aloud.

"This show is gonna be so much better than any band." Someone on her left said. Cordy turned to see who had spoken and came face to face with a demonic looking Willow. Before Cordelia could scream the newly minted vampire grabbed her by the neck. "Lets see if you're as tasty as you look Cordy."

Back on the stage Luke continued with his grand performance. "This is a glorious night." The large vampire said to those unwillingly assembled. "It is also the last night any of you shall ever see." He turned to one of his compatriots off stage "Bring me the first." He ordered dramatically.

"What do you guys want?" the bouncer shouted as he was shoved towards Luke. "Do you want money, is that it?" Then the poor man finally got a close look at Luke's horrifying visage. "Man! What's wrong with your fac-ack!" Luke savagely grabbed the bouncer by the throat curtailing his words.

"Watch me, people." The vessel instructed as he brought the struggling man closer. "Fear is like an elixir." He intoned. "It's almost like blood." Then he bit down into the man's jugular and began to feed. The crowd watched in horror as Luke drained the bouncer dry.

Deep within his underground prison the Master began to feel the power that would set him free beginning to flow.

Luke unceremoniously dropped the dead body of the bouncer to the ground. "Next." He shouted calling for another victim.

XXX

Xander, having outpaced the others arrived at the Bronze's main entrance first only to find it solidly locked from the inside. "Damn it!" he cursed as Buffy, Jesse and Giles caught up with him.

"Are we…too late?" Giles asked, shortness of breath breaking up his words.

"Yeah, they're already inside." Everyone turned an accusing stare at Buffy.

"Hey, I didn't know my Mom would try to ground me." She answered defensively then looked to Xander. "Can you kick it down?"

Xan shook his head negative. "No, that thing is too solid even for me." He said pointing to the steel door. "You three try the back entrance." Xander told them handing Buffy the weapon bag. "I'll find another way in. And guys, for the love of Mike don't try to be heroes. Just get the exit clear and get everyone out. Understood?" They all nodded in unison.

"See you inside then." Giles nodded to Xander and then turned to the other two teens. "Let's go." The trio headed around back and out of sight. Xander spied a drainage pipe that went up the side of the club and to the roof. Deciding that one of the skylights would make for an excellent entrance the slayer began to climb.

XXX

It only took moments for Giles, Buffy and Jesse to reach the rear entrance of the Bronze. Unfortunately it was locked as well.

"This could really put a damper on our rescue plan." Buffy said staring at the pad lock on the outside of the door. "Isn't this a safety hazard?" She asked rhetorically as Giles took a closer look at the door.

"Willow's probably in there." Jesse said in a contemplative way.

"Listen," Giles said severely as he turned away from his examination of the door to face Jesse "if you see Willow in there you must remember one thing. She is not your friend." Giles came to stand in front of Jesse so the older man could look him directly in the eye. "It can talk like Willow, act like Willow and it even knows the things that Willow knew. However it is not Willow, it is the thing that killed her. Don't ever forget that."

Jesse nodded though it was easy to see that it was a bitter pill for him to swallow. Satisfied that his message had been received the watcher went back to work on the door.

XXX

Back within the Bronze things were not going so well for the building's human inhabitants. Luke continued to feed on club goers, funneling even more power to the Master. He had just discarded the drained corpse of a young girl and was calling for yet another victim. Darien intended to supply the next one.

Searching through the crowd for a suitable sacrifice he soon came across a most unwelcome sight. There, against the back wall was the girl, Willow, whom he had sired the night before feeding greedily on a statuesque brunette.

"What do you think you're doing?" he shouted at her. "These are all supposed to be for the Master!"

Willow looked up and put on an innocent smile for her sire. There was still some blood on her lips. "Darien." she called sweetly dropping Cordelia's limp form to the ground with a thud. "It's true what they say, revenge really does taste sweet…" she then licked the last of the blood off her lips with a thoughtful expression "and a little bit coppery."

"You didn't answer my question childe." The blonde vampire said trying to assert some authority. It didn't seem to be working though. Willow slinked up to him seductively; she had reverted to her human face and was sporting a pretty impressive pout.

"Are you gonna tell on me Darien?" she asked in mock distress. "Cause the way I see it," she started to circle him dragging her fingers over his chest and back as she went "what the Master doesn't know, won't hurt us. There are plenty of blood bags here for the big man to feed on and I owed that bitch some payback anyway." It was eerie how much Willow reminded Darien of his former companion, whom he had sired as well. She too had been a persuasive little temptress with a vindictive streak a mile wide. Boy, did he know how to pick 'em.

Willow stopped, standing in front of him again "It's not like this one is going to make a difference." She tilted her head to the dead girl on the floor. He agreed with her on that score, the loss of one sacrifice wasn't really going to hinder the Harvest. Still he was about to tell her "no deal" when she finally put the cherry on top of her little proposal.

"I promise to make it worth your while." She whispered into his ear. "Just use your imagination."

Something told Darien that he would probably end up paying for this in the long run, but right then he didn't care. He nodded in agreement letting her go and then he went off to find someone else to give to Luke. All the while thinking of the many sinful things he and his newest companion would be doing later.

XXX

At the same time on the Bronze's roof.

It hadn't taken Xander long to scale the outside of the Bronze and reach the top of the building. Although, it was a surprise to see that he wasn't alone on the roof. Kneeling down next one of the skylights fiddling with the latch was Angel.

"Hello there." the slayer greeted. "You're the last person I expected to see here. I thought you said you were afraid."

"I was," she answered but didn't turn to face him "but I ran into this guy earlier today. I told him that he was walking into a death trap but he didn't care. He told me that he had to at least try to save his friend." Now she looked at him with a smile. "I thought that was pretty brave and I guess he kind of rubbed off on me."

"Sounds like a cool guy." Xander said smiling from the ego boost while he got down next to her and helped force the latch, opening the skylight. "Anything else stand out about him?"

"Well, he was a bit of a smart-ass," Angel told him playfully with a wink "but kinda cute too."

Xan turned away from her gorgeous dark eyes trying to hide the slight blush that was creeping up. God, was this girl hot. "So um, did you have a strategy for going in there or were you just gonna go for a "Hail Marry play" and hope everything works out?" the slayer asked.

"I suppose that you have a plan then?" she countered with a knowing look.

"I have an idea." He answered honestly if a little sheepishly. "It basically consists of "kill the vessel, save the world" and that is going one step further than I usually do in my planning."

Angel just rolled her eyes and then jumped down through the open skylight.

"Well, I guess its ladies first tonight." Xander said following her lead. They both landed silently on the deserted upper level of the Bronze. The vampires had herded everyone down to the ground floor leaving the top tier empty. The pair crept forward to the guardrail overlooking the stage so that they could get a better sense of the situation.

Luke was on the stage, he had just finished off another victim and was now going on and on about what a great honor it was for those assembled to be sacrificed for the Master's glory. Xander wanted to gag.

"I can clear the front entrance but I'll need a distraction." Angel whispered to him.

"That's good; my friends are coming in through the back." Xander answered quietly. "As for the distraction, I can guarantee you that in about sixty seconds all eyes will be on me."

The dark haired girl nodded "Then let's get this show on the road."

"You gonna be okay taking on the vamp at the entrance?" Xan asked in concern.

"This is not my first rodeo." Angel replied confidently. "Granted it's been a while but I've still got a few tricks up my sleeve. You just worry about dealing with Luke." That said, she turned and vanished into the shadows of the club. If Xander's senses weren't so keen he would have sworn that she was using some type of magic to disappear like that. In reality though, it seemed that the girl was just incredibly stealthy.

'_She has some neat tricks.'_ Xan thought idly. Then he spied the vampire operating the spotlight being directed at Luke. "Yeah, that'll work." The Slayer said to himself with a ruthless smirk as he went to provide that diversion he had promised.

XXX

Darien had just given Luke another young girl as an offering however before he could feed the disciple that had been sent to handle the lights was thrown screaming from the upper tier of the Bronze. All looked up to see what had caused the disturbance but Luke already had a good idea who was responsible.

The vessel's assumption was proven correct when the young man he had fought with the previous night stepped forward and leaned over the railing. "Hi there Lukey, ready for round two?" the slayer asked confidently.

"I had hoped you would come boy." Luke shoved the girl he had been about to feed on aside. "We have some unfinished business you and I. I'm going to enjoy making your death as excruciating as possible. Your corpse will make a most wondrous gift for the Master once he ascends. I will start by ripping out your…"

"Hey Mr. Vessel, enough already!" Xander yelled in protest cutting off Luke's tirade. "From now on, less monologue-ing," The slayer did a leaping somersault from the upper tier of the Bronze and landed on the floor in the midst of the terrified club patrons "more action."

The marked vampire chuckled and motioned for his subordinates to stay back and not get in the way. "Come boy," Luke beckoned "time to die." The slayer was his to kill and no one else's.

Xander accepted the demon's invitation and charged forward onto the stage taking Luke head on. The battle had begun.

XXX

As the slayer had promised, everyone's attention living and undead was centered on him and Luke as they grappled. The minion guarding the front entrance of the Bronze was so entranced by the fight that he didn't even register Angel's presence until she tapped him on the shoulder.

"You!" He shouted in recognition as he faced her.

"Me." She replied casually as her right fist lashed out with preternatural speed to strike him across the jaw. Then in the same motion she plunged a stake into his heart with her left. He burst into dust with a look of stunned amazement. "Not even a challenge." Angel sighed as she unlocked the door and went to discreetly herd some of the terrified teens to safety. "They just don't make minions like they used to."

XXX

It had taken several minutes but Giles had finally managed to pick the lock on the club's rear entrance. On the count of three he and his two charges threw the door open and burst into the club. Giles and Jesse immediately tackled the vampire that had been guarding the door to the ground. Then a moment later Buffy promptly staked the bloodsucker while the librarian and boy still had it restrained.

"Good job, both of you." Giles praised the two high school students as he brushed the vampire's remains off of himself. "Now let's start to evacuate the club's patrons."

"Okay." Buffy nodded and handed Giles the equipment bag. "You two cover the door. I'll get people moving in this direction."

"Buffy that's not exactly the plan I had in min…" Buffy had already disappeared into the crowd before the watcher could finish protesting. "Damn! She causes me almost as many headaches as Xander."

XXX

Punch, block, kick, feint, duck, elbow strike. The fight had become Xander's primary focus as he and Luke continued to trade blows on the Bronze's dance floor. Xan was doing much better this time than he had the night before but it was still anyone's guess how this would end. Xan wanted better odds than fifty/fifty in this fight. Dodging another strike he grinned evilly as his mind formulated a plan to increase his chances and all the slayer had to do to get the ball rolling was do the one thing he was best at, talk.

"Hey Luke, I have to admit, I'm a little disappointed." Xander began nonchalantly, verbally laying the groundwork for his plan while throwing another punch. "I mean last night you were takin' it to me hardcore and tonight…well lets just say I'm not feelin' the same level of commitment on your part." Luke sent a vicious jab at Xander's throat only to have the slayer intercept it mid strike. Then Xan twisted the vampire's wrist painfully locking the arm and holding him there as he continued. "Are you tired tonight or do you just experience performance anxiety in front of large crowds?" The slayer finished with a wink.

Luke broke Xander's hold and with a growl of unadulterated rage and renewed his assault on the slayer with savage single mindedness. Oddly enough getting the large vampire pissed off had been Xander's plan. Sure, the slayer now had to work twice as hard to keep Luke's strikes from connecting but the vampire's anger was also causing him to become sloppy. Now all Xander had to do was wait for just the right moment when Luke made a mistake and he could end this. Just then the slayer ducked a swing that would have taken his head off if it had connected. _'Of course it all hinges on me not dying first.'_ Xan thought mentally sighing at the near miss.

XXX

Xander's fight with Luke was still going full tilt but unfortunately for Buffy the underlings that the vessel had brought with him had finally noticed that something else was up besides their leader's battle and they were now taking steps to deal with the situation. One came straight at her as she shepherded another girl to Giles and Jesse at the back of the club.

Thinking quickly Buffy pulled the cap off a vile of holy water and threw its contents in the bloodsucker's face. The creature screamed in agony, it's skin sizzling as it turned and ran away.

"Whew!" Buffy blew across the top of the open vial like it was a smoking gun. "That'll learn ya." She drawled in a horrible approximation of a southern accent as she watched the smoking vamp scurry away.

'_Not bad for an ex-cheerleader.'_ Buffy mentally patted herself on the back. However her good fortune was short lived for moments later a pair of clawed hands pinned her arms to her sides. _'Oh crap!'_ One of the last remaining vampires had managed to sneak up on her.

"Scream for me little one." The minion whispered in her ear.

"Well, if you insist." The Summers girl said to her captor. "HELP!"

XXX

"HELP!"

Hearing Buffy's cry for aid, Xander snap kicked Luke in the jaw sending the massive vampire flying across the stage. Turning quickly to survey the situation the slayer immediately spotted the trouble. Not to far from the right side of the stage on the dance floor he spotted Buffy struggling with one of Luke's remaining minions.

'_I need a weapon!'_ Xan thought frantically. Then he noticed the drum kit next to him. _'Bingo.'_ Grabbing one of the cymbals off its stand Xan quickly took aim at the vampire that was manhandling his friend.

"It's a good thing you're short Buff." He whispered to himself then threw the cymbal like a discus decapitating the offending vamp.

"Thank you!" The blonde shouted to him as her assailant turned to dust.

It had only been a second's worth of distraction but apparently that had been all the opportunity Luke needed to get the drop on him. The enormous vampire came from behind wrapping his arms around the slayer in a vice grip literally crushing air out of Xan's lungs. Within seconds black spots started to appear in Xander's vision. This was definitely not of the good.

Luke bared his fangs in a smile of triumph as Xander stopped struggling. "I have always wanted to kill a slayer." He chuckled evilly. "Master, taste of this and be free." Luke growled in anticipation and as he started to lower his mouth to Xander's throat. However before the vessel could finish the job Xander flung his head back with all the force he could muster smashing Luke's face with a reverse head butt. The shock and suddenness of the blow staggered Luke and he lost his hold on the slayer.

Once again free Xander snatched up the cymbal-less stand and turned back to face Luke. Holding the stand like a spear the slayer was ready to strike.

The vessel chuckled mirthlessly as if at some private joke that the slayer wasn't privy to. "I thought you would know better boy, metal cannot kill me." Right then Xander knew that this was the moment he had been waiting for.

"Oh, I know that this won't kill you…" Then Xander flung the cymbal stand like a javelin impaling Luke through the stomach and doubling the massive vampire over in pain. "...but I bet that it'll hurt you enough to give me time to do this." Xan finished saying as he closed the distance between himself and the shish ca-bobbed vampire. Then in one graceful move he pulled out Pike's favorite stake and slammed it into Luke's back and through his unbeating heart.

Luke took a few stumbling steps away from Xander and then fell from the stage with only the cymbal stand and dust hitting the dance floor after he exploded.

Far beneath Sunnydale the Master screamed in impotent rage as he felt the barrier re-assert itself keeping him in his prison.

Looking up from Luke's dusty remains Xander just smirked at the remaining minions.

"Who's next?" The slayer asked of the vampires before him. Looking at each other with panic in their yellowed eyes the remaining vamps scattered running for the exits.

XXX

Seeing her fellow vampires scurry away like cockroaches before Xander made Willow want to laugh. "Well there goes 60 years of planning and hard work." she said mockingly to Darien who was seething in rage at her side. "I think it's time we made our retreat." She added placing a hand on his shoulder.

Darien shrugged her hand off. "You don't think I can kill him?" He asked angrily.

"No I don't." the redhead vampire stated and then smiled evilly "At least not yet. But I do have more than a few ideas for how to make it happen. In fact I've already started." Darien nodded to her wisdom in this instance, besides they needed to find a scapegoat to pin this whole debacle on. The Master was definitely going to want a pound of flesh after this. Taking his newest companion by the hand they both ran out into the night through the clubs front entrance.

Stepping out of the shadows Angel watched as the pair ran away. "He pulled it off." A smile parted her lips "I'll be damned."

XXX

"Everyone ok?" Xan asked as the last of the fang faces cleared out of the now empty night club.

"I'm fine." Buffy said cheerfully as she sauntered on to the dance floor. "I'm pretty sure we just saved the world."

"I too am unharmed." Giles added as he walked out into the open still trying to pat the dust out of his clothes from the vampire he and the others has slayed earlier. "Although I'm not sure where Mr. McNally ended up."

As if on cue Jesse burst out of the shadows of the Bronze's back area looking distressed "Guys I need your help, quick!" He shouted urgently and ran back the way he'd come. The others followed after to see what had him so distraught. They quickly came upon Jesse kneeling over Cordelia's pale and prone form on the floor.

"Is she?" Buffy asked and just then Cordelia moaned slightly. "Guess not." Giles knelt down as well and examined the incapacitated high school socialite.

"No miss Chase is still alive but she won't be for long if we don't hurry." Looking up to his slayer "Xander, if you would please?" As Xan effortlessly lifted Cordy off the ground he noticed something odd. On the spot where Cordelia had been left to die was a single yellow crayon neatly broken in half. Looking to his best friend Xan could see that Jesse had seen it too and understood what it meant.

"That's weird." Buffy said picking up the crayon. "What's it mean?"

"Willow." Xander said gravely as he moved towards the exit carrying Cordelia as swiftly and gingerly as he could. "She doesn't want us forgetting she's still out there."

XXX

Friday morning at Sunnydale High was turning out to be remarkably ordinary Jesse McNally decided especially considering the previous night's events.

"Nothing. "Jesse said in disbelief he walked up to join Xander, Buffy and Giles on the school's steps "Absolutely nothing. No one seems to have noticed that the dead rose last night and tried to end the world." He sighed heavily "All anyone is talking about is a how a gang on PCP busted up the Bronze and that Cordelia suffered a tragic but not fatal barbeque fork injury last night."

"What did you expect?" Xander asked smirking as he patted his bud on the back.

"I don't know, something." Jesse replied. "We should have at least had an assembly."

"People have an alarming tendency to rationalize what they can and simply forget what the can't." Giles interjected.

"Believe me I've seen it happen." Buffy added with a knowing grin.

"Well I'm never gonna forget it." Jesse swore.

"Good." Giles said as he adjusted his glasses "Then next time you'll be prepared."

"Next time?" Jesse asked uncertainly.

"Of course." Giles responded looking a little surprised "We may have stopped the Master from freeing himself and opening the Mouth of Hell although I doubt that means he'll stop trying. I'd say the fun is just beginning." In Xan's opinion his watcher sounded just a little too enthusiastic about that.

"More vampires then?" Jess asked reluctantly. They'd barely survived the ones last night.

"Oh not just vampires. The next threat we face may be entirely different." Giles had a gleam in his eye that really set Xander's spidey sense a tingling. "We are at the center of a mystical convergence here. We may very well stand between the Earth and it's total destruction."

"Ok, so no pressure then?" Xander said sarcastically to the older Brit. "Hey Buff, any tips on how to get expelled so we don't have to deal with this?"

"Oh I like that plan." The former cheerleader crowed as the trio walked away from Giles. "Hey what are the chances the school we'd have to go to afterward would also be on a hellmouth?"

"We could always blow something up." Jesse added helpfully "They're pretty strict about that sorta thing."

"Nah, already did that one and I don't want anyone calling me a one trick pony." Buffy answered with a laugh.

"I was thinking excessive non-studying." Xander suggested. After that the three were too far away for Giles to hear anymore.

Shaking his head in utter astonishment that the fates would choose those three to guard the hellmouth the Englishman simply proclaimed "The Earth is doomed."


	4. Interlude 1

Author note.

This is the first of what I hope to be many fun little interludes between episodes. They don't really fit anywhere so don't try wracking your brain figuring out where they go chronologically in the story. Mostly I just write them for the exercise. Anyway enjoy.

Interlude 1

Hawaiian Prints

The shirt was ugly and Buffy couldn't stand it anymore. Sitting across from her in the Sunnydale High library, completely oblivious to the crime of fashion he was wearing was one Xander Harris, a.k.a. the Slayer. Today Xan had chosen a particularly horrendous and bright Hawaiian print shirt to anchor his outfit. Unable to keep her yap shut any longer Buffy took a deep breath and decided to ask her best friend what appeal there was in wearing something so hideous?

"Xander, I've just gotta ask. Why do you wear those?"

"Wear what now?" Xander replied with a bewildered expression.

"That," Buffy said pointing at his shirt "it looks like a box of neon colored crayons threw up on it."

Looking down at his brightly colored apparel Xander just smirked. "All right Buff, I'll tell you not one, not two, but three reasons why I wear shirts like these." Xander said leaning forward and cleared his throat and then held up his hand with three fingers up. "Reason numero uno," he ticked down one finger "Hawaiian prints are cool," Buffy snickered unimpressed "and if you don't believe me just ask Elvis and Tom Selleck." He dropped another digit and said "Reason deuce, they're perfect vampire bait. Fang-faces are really attracted to bright colors and this shirt's like a neon sign saying "Bite me" they just can't resist."

"Really?" Buffy asked in mock surprise "and here I thought you wore those as a form of preemptive birth control."

"Ouch, " Xan answered feigning hurt "you certainly know how to verbally kick a man in the coconuts there Buffster."

"Sorry," Buffy apologized "didn't mean to pull a Cordelia there. But you still owe me a third reason."

The dark-haired slayer took a deep breath and let out a sigh, his expression darkening, and then began. "Willow always liked them, she always use to say that they were very Xander-ish."

"Oh...um..." She stammered as the smirk fell away from her face and she looked down feeling horrible. "I'm sorry Xander, I didn't know."

His expression softening slightly Xander reached across the table taking one of Buffy's hands in his own and smiling sadly. "It's okay Buff, it hurts a little to talk about her but it's still good to talk about her. She wasn't always a..." He floundered a bit trying to describe they're current situation with his former bestest bud.

"A raving hell bitch intent on destroying your soul." Buffy supplied instantly feeling guilty about being so blunt.

"Yeah." Xan agreed sadly but then smiled just a little. "Almost makes her sound like she's trying to muscle Cordy out in that department doesn't it?"

Buffy smiled too. If Xander could still joke about it than she hadn't offended him too much. "I know, where does she get off trying to take Cordelia's job away like that?"

fin.

And just to let you guys know that I am actually working on this thing again here is a little preview of the next installment. Also keep in mind that this is just part of my first draft and still very rough.

Next time on Xander the Vampire Slayer...

"NOOO!" Lothos raged as he listened to the screams of his children burning alive trapped inside the inferno formerly known as the Hemery High Gymnasium.

"This just ain't yer day is it?" Oliver Pike mockingly asked of the Master Vampire who was currently watching all of his plans literally go up in flames. With a snarl and full game face on Lothos turned to confront the young slayer that had all but defeated him.

Pike set himself for the fight of his life. A fight he wasn't all that certain he would win. He wasn't in the best shape right now. After tangling with Lothos' lieutenants he was fairly certain that he had at least two broken ribs and his right shoulder was definitely dislocated. Add in all the cuts and bruises on top of that and he was in a sorry state. Still this wasn't quite over yet.

"You have robbed me of what I love slayer." Lothos growled "I'm going to take my time killing you."

Pike readied his favorite stake in his good hand. They moved in a slow circle about the area the light from the burning gym casting long shadows on the ground as they sized each other up both looking for an opportunity to strike. Pike was just about to make his move when the worst possible thing happened.

"Pike?" Buffy called as she came running around from the opposite side of the burning building.

_'What the hell is she doing?'_ Pike thought frantically as the cheerleader came into view. He'd told her to get away from here as soon as she finished making sure all the exits to the gym were locked. Seeing the girl in the white evening gown come around the corner Lothos smiled cruelly.

"Then again," The master vampire said with a sadistic edge to his voice "maybe I'll just take away the thing you love instead." He turned his attentions to Buffy and made to charge her. In the space of a micro second Pike flung himself into action as well, his injuries forgotten. Never in his life had he moved so fast. With the exception of himself and Lothos the whole world seemed to have slowed down to barely a crawl. Lothos was almost to Buffy and Pike was only a fraction of a second behind. He willed himself to go faster. He had to get to her first. Pouring on just a little more speed he pulled ahead just barely and knew that he was going to beat the bloodsucker to the punch. He also knew that his options were going to be limited. In fact there was really only one thing he could do.

With a sickening squishy crunching sound the world moved back into regular speed again. There was a look of surprise on Lothos' face as well as one of cruel triumph as he noticed that slayer had somehow put himself between the old demon and his intended victim. "Impressive boy. I didn't think even a slayer could move that fast. Too bad I just put my fist through your chest. Kinda hard to save the girl when you're dead."

Looking down Pike saw Lothos' fist was indeed buried in his chest up to the wrist but still the vampire slayer smiled. Lothos seemed confused at the action, where was the fear and defeat that should be on his enemy's face? Pike coughed, blood running over his lips and with his last breath he said "Got you too asshole."

Now it was the vamp's turn to glance down. The look of alarm on Lothos' face when he noticed the stake protruding from his chest would have been almost comical if the situation weren't so dire. Lothos exploded into dust a moment later and Oliver Pike's world started to turn black as the pavement rushed up to meet him. He heard Buffy scream as he fell. Then he never heard anything again.

XXX

"Ahhh!" Xander shouted as he sat bolt upright in bed his hand clutching at his chest. Breathing hard Xan tried to tell himself that it was just a dream, just another memory that wasn't his. God this was getting old.

He'd talked to Giles about it. Explained that he was having some pretty vivid flashes of Pike's life night and day. Giles had assured him that although it was rare it was also not unprecedented for a slayer to experience some of their predecessors memories, especially when that slayer had been interacting with individuals that their predecessors had known. It would pass. At least that's what Giles had told him. Well that had been a couple of weeks ago and Xander was pretty sure it was getting worse not better.

It was 5:46 in the morning, which meant there really wasn't much point in trying to go back to sleep. School would be starting in little over an hour anyway so Xan got himself out of bed and shuffled down the hall to bathroom to start his morning rituals.

Stepping in front of the bathroom mirror Xander flipped on the lights and was momentarily blinded. So he nearly jumped out of his skin when he noticed in the mirror's reflection a person standing over his shoulder. And not just any person but one Oliver Pike.

"I want my life back." Pike said staring angrily at Xander in the mirror. Turning around quickly Xander was again surprised to find no one standing behind him at all. Blinking his eyes hard the slayer looked again in the mirror and saw only himself looking back.

"Damn dreams." Turning on the taps Xander splashed some cold water on his face and wrote the whole experience off as just not being fully awake yet. If only it were that simple.


End file.
